The Bodyguard
by Katia Salvatore
Summary: Elena Gilbert is a famous politician's daughter. With Greyson finally running for Vice President, new dangers are on the horizon. Against her wishes, Greyson hires a bodyguard to look over Elena at all times. That's when Damon Salvatore enters her life. / Delena centric /
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys!**

 **This is Chapter One of my new story, The Bodyguard. I hope you enjoy it! **

**It's AU (Alternate Universe) and AH (All Human).**

 **In this, Elena's dad is alive and a politician, and Damon is a bodyguard.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

 **Please Review!**

 **~Katia**

* * *

If there was one thing Elena Gilbert hated more than anything else in the world, it was being treated like a child. That was why she always preferred her father to her mother. He treated her like an adult, even when she had been eleven years old. However, by some twist of cruel fate, now her father was the one treating her like a child.

"I don't need a body guard, Dad," Elena complained, turning on her heel to face her father. She couldn't believe that he was even remotely suggesting the idea. "I don't need to be babysat like some little kid. I'm eighteen for Christ's sake!"

Her father, Greyson Gilbert, turned on her, glaring. "Don't get that kind of tone with me, young lady. You're getting a body guard, and that's the final verdict. Death threats are coming in like crazy with me running for vice president, Elena."

"I can take care of myself!" Elena complained, but her dad just wasn't listening to her. Ever since he'd decided to run for vice president, he'd been getting assassination attempts like crazy. No attempts had been made on her life yet, but he was insisting she have a body guard nearby at all times. It was going to drive her crazy.

"Come on, Elena. Just tell everyone he's your boyfriend, if you're that worried."

Elena scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "I'm not telling people he's my boyfriend. That would hinder my chances of getting an actual boyfriend."

Her dad grinned. "Fantastic. Then absolutely tell everyone he's your boyfriend."

She didn't say anything, instead shaking her head and storming up to her room.

"You can pout all you want, but he's going to be here tonight, and you are going to treat him with respect." Her dad called after her, but Elena slammed the door on his voice.

She couldn't believe that this was happening to her. Now, wherever she went, some guy would be right next to her, making her life extremely difficult. It would be really hard to go on dates, or to even sneak out and go to parties, like she'd been doing ever since she turned sixteen.

This was going to be the worst experience of her life. She was sure of it, and that really pissed her off. Her senior year was supposed to be an amazing end to her high school life. She was supposed to finally lose her virginity. She had an entire bucket list of things she and her best friend, Caroline, were supposed to do together. Now, there would be an added character: some idiot in a suit. They always wore suits, because they thought that it made them cool or something. It didn't.

Grabbing her phone, she immediately dialed Caroline's phone number. She picked up on the third ring.

"My life is a joke," Elena said, before Caroline could even get in the word 'hello.'

"Slow down, baby girl. What's the 9-1-1?" Caroline's voice drifted through the phone and Elena sighed.

"My dad's making me get a body guard, Care." Elena said, flopping down onto her bed and groaning loudly into the phone. "It's so fucking stupid."

"Are you serious? He's going to be around all the time, then."

"Yeah, I know."

Elena didn't even know how to act around a body guard. She had no experience with them. Was she supposed to talk to them, or leave them alone so that the two didn't have to interact? Was he going to be with her literally all the time? What about when she was going shopping or spending the night at a friend's house? She needed a whole manual just to know what the bathroom code was!

"This totally blows," Caroline said, bringing Elena out of her thoughts.

"Totally," Elena agreed. "He gets here tonight. I need a pick me up."

There was a moment of silence, before she heard Caroline's voice. "Party at Tyler's house in an hour. I'll pick you up? Last day of freedom and all," Caroline pointed out.

"I'm there."

* * *

Elena sighed, looking into the mirror one last time. She struggled to get ready in an hour, but she'd definitely managed. She picked up the final accessory—her golden locket that she's had ever since she was a baby. Her dad got it for her when she was born, and Elena never went a day without wearing it. It was her version of a baby blanket. She couldn't imagine outgrowing it, ever.

Grabbing her phone, Elena headed downstairs. She passed her dad on her way, and he eyed her but didn't say anything. He probably knew that she was just going out with Caroline, because she was wearing what he liked to call "sensible clothing." Which, in the long run, meant jeans and a t-shirt. Little did he know, however, that Elena had a dress on a hanger outside her window for her to change into.

"I'll be back by nine. That's when the babysitter gets here, right?" Elena said, turning on her heel and raising an eyebrow at her father. She didn't want to keep the bad air between them. They rarely fought, and she'd like to keep it that way.

"Yes, Mr. Salvatore will be here at nine. Please be on time, Elena. I'm not kidding. This is important," Greyson said.

"Yes, sir," Elena said, turning on her heel and throwing a strand of her brown hair over her shoulder. She rolled her eyes as she walked out the door just as Caroline's car pulled up to the driveway. Elena walked over to the side of her house, grabbing her dress, and then ran towards the car.

Caroline smiled and peeled away from the house, leaving Elena to start changing into the purple dress she had picked out for the evening. "I have to be back at nine to meet 'Mr. Salvatore,'" Elena said the name in a mocking tone, rolling her eyes. "My dad seemed pretty serious about it, so no being late."

Caroline nodded, and Elena sighed. Once she got the dress on and situated onto her body, she dug in the back seat of Caroline's car for a pair of heels and her water bottle. It was textbook case to never drink at these parties, because you never know what pictures might get leaked to the press. Not only did she risk ruining her dad's image if she drank, but she risked making him mad at her, which she never wanted. Her and her dad were close, and she really didn't want to do anything to change that.

"I wish that my dad wasn't running for vice president," Elena told Caroline, sighing as she clasped the buckle on her right heel, and then again on her left heel. Tucking her hair behind her ear as she tried to find her lip stick in her purse, she continued talking. "It's just ruined everything. I don't know why he thinks this is a good idea."

Caroline didn't say anything, and she didn't have to. Elena was plenty aware of how it seemed. She was acting spoiled, and a bit bratty. She always acted like that though, sometimes it was just a bit more prominent. It's not like Elena wanted to be spoiled, but God had dealt her a nice set of cards. It was just human nature to always find something to complain about—especially if your name was Elena Gilbert. She was probably one of the most pessimistic people in D.C., and she didn't really have good reason to be like that. She just was.

"Do you think he'll be hot?" Caroline said, snapping Elena back to the present, and actually startling her a bit.

"Who?"

"Your body guard. Do you think he'll be hot? Can I bang him?" Caroline asked, taking a sharp turn, causing Elena to squish up against the passenger door. She hardly noticed, though, because she was too busy focusing on the crazy shit that was coming out of Caroline's mouth.

"Are you crazy? No! You cannot sleep with my body guard."

"But you do think he'll be hot?"

"No. He's going to be a body guard. He obviously couldn't make it as anything else."

That was that. Caroline dropped it, and Elena was very thankful. The thought of her body guard and Caroline getting together honestly sickened Elena a little bit. Caroline was very pretty, obviously. Guys always went for her slim figure and big, blue eyes. Throw the wavy, blonde hair that Caroline had been magically gifted with? Elena was eternally jealous of how guys threw themselves at Care, where Elena always had to make the first move. She supposed that being a politician's daughter threw some guys off, but Elena didn't really believe that. The sad truth was that, while Elena was fairly pretty, she would always be the lesser of two beauties when she was standing next to Caroline. What sane guy wanted a brunette with brown eyes when they could get a blonde with blue?

Elena heard the party before she saw it. Music was blaring out of Tyler Lockwood's house, and Elena could feel the vibrations coming from the house. Familiarity. The last bit of partying she'd have until she could convince her dad to do away with the body guard. Once the car was parked, she stepped out, walking down the street. Caroline caught up with her.

"Who knows? Maybe you can cross number eight off The List tonight?" Caroline said and Elena blushed.

The List. It was something the two had created on the last day of school their junior year. They called it the High School Bucket List, even though they would only have the chance to complete it their senior year. They wanted to pass it on to future generations and have it become a popular thing at the school.

The List currently had twelve parts to it, and Elena had been determined to finish them all this year. Getting a body guard had put a severe hindrance on her plans, however.

 _The High School Bucket List_

 _1.) Kiss a boy. Or a girl, whatever your preference._

 _2.) Kiss a Girl. Or a boy. Once again, whatever your preference, so long as you kiss someone of each gender._

 _3.) Audition for a musical. Mystic Falls High School offers three every year. Audition for a lead role in one, even if you suck._

 _4.) Go to Tyler Lockwood's Start of the Year Party. Everyone's always invited, and if you don't go at least once in your high school career, you're seriously missing out. (and if he's not throwing the party anymore, we guarantee someone is.)_

 _5.) Get High. Enough said, yeah?_

 _6.) Get Drunk. Once again, do we really need to explain?_

 _7.) Skip Class (At least once!) Skipping class is a milestone that every teenager should hit._

 _8.) Lose Your Virginity. If you've already completed this before you entered high school, ignore._

 _9.) Get all A's at least one semester. Colleges love this kind of stuff, and we've got to help you go somewhere in life, other than to jail._

 _10.) Mouth off to a teacher. We all have that teacher that irritates the hell out of us. Tell them how you really feel!_

 _11.) Graduate! Get that diploma. You've deserved it._

 _12.) Go Skinny Dipping! Do it. You know you want to._

"Maybe," Elena said, looking around the party when they entered the house. "But there appears to be a severe lack in male real estate."

She wasn't feeling too good about number eight being completed that night. But, she supposed it wasn't a total waste of time. She could complete number four for sure that night, since she'd arrived. Maybe she'd set out to achieve numbers one and two as well. If she was feeling up for it, that was.

Caroline leaned in close to Elena's ear so that she wouldn't have to yell. "No kidding. Maybe you'll have to sleep with Tyler." Elena scrunched up her nose at that idea. She couldn't imagine ever being that desperate. Tyler Lockwood slept with anything he could get his hands on. And while losing her virginity this year was a really big deal to her, she'd really rather not get a disease while doing it. She told Caroline just as much. "I was just kidding, Elena. Calm down."

Elena shot her a look, shaking her head as she ventured into the house a little bit more. Caroline disappeared already, whether it was to go find a number 8 or to get a drink, Elena didn't really know. Nor did she really care. Caroline always walked off at these kinds of events, and Elena had gotten used to it really quickly.

She turned the corner and came into the game room of the Lockwood house, watching a group of guys play pool. A couple of them said hi to her, and invited her to play. Elena declined at first, but she eventually got sucked into it. Setting her water bottle down, she grabbed a pool stick and slid into the group.

"You guys are about to get those asses kicked," she said proudly as she stepped in beside the two brother—Elijah and Kol. "I'm really good at this, not that I mean to brag or anything." Elena grinned at them.

"You think that you're good at everything," Elijah said to her, causing Elena to grin.

"I know I'm good at everything," she responded before leaning down and taking a shot. She managed to get two solids in the sockets. "See?"

The game continued like that for a good fifteen minutes, before Elena managed to sink in the last ball she needed in order to win. She was good at pool because her dad had taught her how. Back when he was in high school and college, he grew to be really good at it. When he became successful, he got his own pool table and put it in their basement. Elena and her dad used to spend hours in the basement, playing together. She had never quite gotten to the point where she could beat her dad, but she was still pretty good.

"I've got to hand it to you, Elena," one of the other guys, named Liam, said to her. "That was some mad skill."

Elena shrugged, but meanwhile she was grinning. Of course she knew that it was "mad skill." However, something she learned when she was little was to never let someone know how you got to be good. "I guess I am good. Wonder how that happened."

"Oh, Elena, come on. You know how it happened. Just tell us."

"A magician never tells their secrets," she grinned, walking over to grab her things. "On that magician note, I think it's time for me to disappear and put my talents to use elsewhere at this party. Bye, boys."

Elena headed out of the room, looking for somewhere else to hang out for a little bit. She desperately wanted a drink, but she didn't want to risk being photographed with one. She probably could convince Caroline to sneak one home in her bag and then they could have it tonight. Caroline always spent the night once they went out, because she was too drunk to drive home. Elena was always the designated driver.

Elena sighed as she looked for someone that she knew, and that she knew well. The only person she could find, however, was Tyler. If he weren't busy sticking his tongue down some freshman's throat, she probably would head over to talk to him. Sighing, she took a swig from her water bottle and then headed over to sit down on the couch, which was currently empty.

She knew that the real party wouldn't start until nine, and Elena would be gone by then. She knew that she was missing out on the best party of the year, but it didn't really matter to her. It was enough to just be here before her entire life got turned upside down. She still couldn't believe that it had come to this. How did things go from being perfectly fine to being entirely hectic in a matter of minutes? How did someone's entire world get flipped by one sentence? Why did anyone or anything hold that type of power?

Elena wanted to know the answer to a lot of these questions, and it killed her that she probably never would. She wanted to know everything about anything that she could get her hands on. She was just like that—even though she rarely showed it. If she could spend all day in a library doing nothing but reading—she wouldn't be complaining. In fact, if she were to complain at all, it would be to also be writing during that time.

She loved writing. She hoped to make a career out of it someday. She knew and recognized that she wasn't fantastic, but she didn't need to be fantastic yet. She was only eighteen, and writing was a skill that took a lot of time. Elena believed in that whole heartedly. You know how in The Sims they have to get their skill up to a certain level before they can label as an author? The real world works exactly like that, in Elena's opinion.

"You, my friend, are being boring at what is quite possibly your last party of the year," a voice drifted in, and Elena turned to face it. Considering the context, she would have believed that it was Caroline, however it was a male's voice.

"Klaus," Elena said, her face hard and flat. Klaus Mikaelson was anything but what the public saw him as. He wasn't a saint. Elena met Klaus three years ago at a gala with her father. Klaus's father, Finn, was also a politician. Both Finn and Greyson believed that she and Klaus would fall madly, deeply in love. That dream quickly went out the window when ten minutes after meeting, Klaus tried to stick his tongue in Elena's mouth so she threw her champagne in his face.

Greyson had not been happy about that incident.

"Why the hostility baby?" Klaus smirked, sitting down next to her. Elena scooted away and scowled at him.

"One, don't call me 'baby.' Two, the hostility is because we don't get along. We haven't gotten along in all of forever." Elena snapped. "So, leave me alone please."

"I hear that you're getting yourself a babysitter," Klaus said, as if he didn't hear her at all. "That's what my dad says."

Elena sighed, rolling her eyes a bit. "It's not a babysitter."

"Don't lie to yourself."

"I'm not. He's not a babysitter. He's there to protect me."

Elena sighed, because she did feel like Mr. Salvatore was a lot like a babysitter, but she didn't want to give Klaus the satisfaction of being right. The last thing that she wanted was Klaus to feel like he knew her. He didn't.

"Whatever you say, love," Klaus said.

"Okay, I'm done." Elena rolled her eyes, standing up and walking away before he could continue talking to her. He was so aggravating, and she hated every time she ran into him. Elena picked up her phone and called Caroline. When she picked up her phone, Elena sighed. "I'm ready to go. I ran into Klaus."

"Elena, we've been here for half an hour."

"I want to go."

"Then take my car and go home. I'll have someone else take me home."

"Caroline, please just—"

"No, Elena. Just go home."

"Fine, whatever."

Elena hung up and grabbed Caroline's car keys out of her purse. She knew that she was being unreasonable, because they had only been at the party for thirty minutes, but that didn't really matter to Elena. When she was ready to go, she was ready to go. Besides, it was already 7:43. They'd have to leave soon anyways to make sure that Elena got home on time.

Unlocking the car, Elena slid into the driver's seat.

It was her last hour of freedom, and Elena was going to go sit at home.

She was already turning lame.

* * *

Elena didn't recognize the silver SUV in her driveway, which could only mean one thing.

Her new body guard was here.

Sighing, Elena slammed the door to Caroline's door closed and walked inside her house. She had stopped at a gas station to grab a bottle of water and change back into her normal clothes. Elena walked inside her house, checking the time as she did so. 8:13. Her body guard was almost an hour early. Fantastic. What she believed to be the last sense of her freedom quickly turned into the last minute. For a brief moment, Elena considered getting back in the car and leaving for the night. However, she really didn't want to piss off her dad, and she knew that if she were to do something so drastic, she definitely would piss him off.

Following the sound of her dad talking, she entered his office, where he sat with some really old man. Fantastic. This was her new body guard? Didn't her dad say something about pretending he was her boyfriend? Yeah, no. That definitely wouldn't be happening now. Not that it would have happened before, but the option was always a nice one. She cleared her throat and smiled at her dad when he finally acknowledged her.

"Oh, Elena, I'm so glad you're home. Mr. Salvatore was a little earlier than I expected," her dad said, walking over to her and pushing her into the kitchen a little bit more.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Salvatore," Elena said, smiling and shaking the old man's hand. However, the old man just started laughing at her, and Elena was immediately very confused. Why was this some joke to him? She looked to her dad for assistance, but he was laughing at her too. She crossed her arms, looking between the two guys and frowning. "What's so funny?"

"I could be wrong, but I think they're laughing because he's not 'Mr. Salvatore,'" a voice said, mocking the last two words. Elena turned around, facing a very tall (very handsome) brunette. She bit her lip, narrowing her eyes slightly at him. Who was he? "I am. Mr. Salvatore, that is, but I would prefer you just call me Damon."

Oh. Of course. He was Mr. Salvatore. Well, technically, he was Damon. She nodded, looking between her dad and the older man, frowning. "I'm so sorry for the confusion," she said, before turning back to face Damon, "You're my body guard?"

"I prefer the term 'guy I keep around to kick serious ass.'" he said with a teasing smile, causing Elena to roll her eyes.

"Yeah, I think I'll stick with body guard, thanks." She turned to face her father, biting her lip. "So, this is it? I'm officially a prisoner?"

"You aren't a prisoner, Elena. You're still free to live your life however you want it. It's just that Damon is always going to be there to make sure that you stay safe." Greyson said, placing his hand on Elena's shoulder, which caused her to scrunch up her nose.

"Right, because if I decide to have sex this year, I totally want some guy sitting in the corner and cheering me on," she sighed, shaking her head.

"One, I really hope you aren't planning on having sex until you're married," Greyson said, crossing his arms and giving her a mean glare. "Two, no. He'd be outside the door."

"Oh, because that's so much better."

Damon threw his arm around Elena's shoulder, pulling her into his side. "Don't worry, Elena. I'll only be cheering the guy on. Not you."

Elena scowled. She could tell she was not going to like Damon Salvatore at all.

* * *

"He's going to be living next door to my room?" Elena whined, turning on her heel to stare at her father. "Seriously? Is that really necessary?"

"Yes, it's completely necessary. You need to be kept safe at all times. You're lucky that I'm not making him live in your room." Her father snapped at her. "Now, quit being a baby. He needs to feel welcomed here, and his boss is sitting downstairs. If he thinks you're going to be a threat to Damon, he will not let Damon be here, and then you'll be getting me as a body guard, got it?"

Elena sighed, rolling her eyes and nodding. "Yeah, sure. Whatever," she said, walking into her bedroom and then closing the door behind her. She still couldn't believe that this was happening to her. It had to be some cruel twist of fate, because there was no way that Elena deserved this. What had she ever done to deserve this kind of punishment? She was a fairly good person, and she got good grades in school. Why did the universe think it was so funny to make her become a three year old child again? Why did she need to be babysat? It wasn't like she ever did anything bad.

Groaning, Elena walked over to her desk, pulling up her laptop and opening up a new word document. She journaled frequently on her computer. She felt like everything was the most protected there, since you had to not only enter a password to get into the computer, but she had a software that locked certain word documents if she wanted them locked. It was extremely private and helpful to her.

She began furiously typing, cursing the world and all that it was for giving her this life. She very rarely wrote about things that were so aggravating. Usually, her journal was just a place to write about her crushes on guys and see if she could decipher what her "type" was. (She's yet to do so.) Her journal saw the soft side of her, almost-never getting to see her rant and rave about her problems. Elena just always figured that other people had bigger problems, and that she shouldn't be giving hers too much thought. They would pass and play out the way that they were supposed to play out. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Until now, that was. Elena didn't understand what the point of having a body guard was. No one had tried to hurt Elena yet, and she doubt that they would try, since she wasn't on the news like her dad was. People probably didn't even know her face unless they went to her high school.

"You always attack your keyboard like that?" Damon's voice drifted through the air like a dandelion seed after a wish was made.

"Only when there are irritating guys in the room next door," Elena responded, clicking save on the computer and then turning to face him. Why was he even in her room? Didn't he know how to knock? Didn't he know how to do anything as a decent human being?

Apparently not, since he decided to sit down on her bed without asking.

"You're a peach, aren't you?" Damon asked, looking around her room. Elena glared at him, clearly unamused with him and his jokes. "I can tell that we're going to be…what's the term teenage girls use these days? Besties?"

Elena rolled her eyes, standing up from her desk and walking over to him. "You're absolutely right. I can already feel us getting ready to do makeovers. I hope I don't accidentally stab you in the eye with a mascara wand."

Damon's grin grew even more. "You are, by far, the most adorable little girl I've ever seen."

"I'm eighteen!" Elena groaned, clenching her fists and trying to keep herself from hitting him.

"Really? You could have fooled me. You're about as flat chested and short as an eleven year old."

Elena shook her head, not answering him and walking away, into her bathroom. She couldn't believe that this was her fate. Before, it was only a 6 on the Life-Crappiness Scale. Now, after meeting him and realizing how difficult it was going to be to talk to him and get through to him, she realized that it was about a 18. Out of 10! He was seriously infuriating.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Elena frowned. She knew that she was short, but was she really flat-chested? That didn't sound right to her. Sure, she wasn't as well-endowed as Caroline, but a B cup wasn't bad, right? Elena sighed, shaking her head. No. It wasn't bad. Elena would have never questioned it prior to meeting Damon. He was just being an ass. Grabbing her hair brush, she threw her hair up into a bun before returning to her room.

She expected Damon to have left her room, but now he was laying on her bed, shoes on the floor, watching T.V. Elena rolled her eyes and walked over to the television set, turning it off and crossing her arms. "Get out of my room."

"I was watching that," Damon whined.

"Get out of my room."

Damon smiled from where he lay on her bed, but made absolutely no effort to get off of her Lily Pulitzer bedspread. Elena sighed, storming out of her room. If he wasn't going to leave, she would. She just wanted to be alone. If this was what her life was going to be like for the foreseeable future, Elena needed to get as much alone time as her dad would allow. She walked out onto the second-floor balcony, looking straight out at the tiny pond in her backyard.

This was her favorite place to go when she needed to think. It was her favorite place to write, as well. Whenever she was working on a new novel idea, Elena set up camp with her laptop on the balcony. Sometimes she wouldn't come back into the house for hours. She just loved being out here, where it seemed like all of her problems were far away.

Grasping onto the railing, she looked up at the night sky, and her eyes landed on a star. It was particularly bright, and she almost wished it would fall, so that she could wish that her life went back to normal. So that she could wish away all of her problems.

So that she could wish away Damon.

"Please let things go back to normal," she whispered, staring at the star and willing it to fall so that her wish would come true. "I wish that everything was normal. I wish that everything was the way it should be."

"Baby," her dad's voice startled her, causing her to jump a little bit. "I know that this isn't what you wanted. But you've got to understand, this isn't a punishment. It's not me trying to know where you are and what you're doing at all times. It's me protecting you. I'm terrified that someone is going to make an attempt on your life, and I need you to be safe at all time."

"I don't think Mr. Kick Some Serious Ass is all too keen on keeping me safe," Elena huffed, sitting down on the cold cement ground and looking across her backyard. She leaned her head against the cool metal railing, and bit her lip.

Her dad sat down next to her and sighed. "You miss your mom, don't you?"

Elena looked over at her dad and nodded. "She would have never let you do this to me. She wanted me to grow up normal."

"You aren't normal, Elena" her dad said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer to him. "You're special, and because of that, I need to keep you as safe as possible. So, unless you want to go stay with your Aunt Jenna for your senior year…"

He trailed off, but Elena got the message loud and clear. "Then I better accept the fact that I'm stuck with Damon."

Greyson didn't say anything else, instead just nodding and holding her for a little bit. Elena bit her lip to keep from crying. She hadn't truly thought about her mom in a really long time. Not since the incident, that was. She may have never completely gotten along with her mom, but at least they'd had their moments. Now, however, Elena didn't have a mom to talk to.

She sighed, finally pulling away from her dad.

"I'm going to bed."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey you guys! I just wanted to thank you all so much for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following my story! It means a lot! If you like my writing style, I also have two more stories that I'm working on: A Thousand Regrets which is a The Originals story, and Bloodlines which is a The Vampire Diaries Story! Both are linked on my profile if you want to check them out as well! (You can only get to Bloodlines by going to the link in my profile, since I'm co-writing it on a separate account!)**

 **As always, I like to respond to Reviews before my chapter!**

Imarifirst: I'm glad you get the frustration with Elena not being happy about having Damon around. However, to play Devil's advocate, Damon is annoying to her and she isn't happy that she's being under scrutiny all the time. And I promise that Caroline is not the one you have to worry about in this story. In response to your PM, Thank you for your suggestions! I'll keep them in mind!

Orchid19: I apologize that you don't see them as Damon and Elena! I will try and get better at that as I go, but it might take me a chapter or so longer, as I prewrote the first three :)

 **I once again remind you that this is an AU (Alternate Universe) and AH (All Human) story!**

 **Disclaimer:** **I do not own TVD or it's characters, just the story line and any character names you don't recognize!**

 **Please Review!**

 **~Katia**

* * *

The rest of the night had been fairly uneventful for Elena, but that morning posed a whole new world of problems. It was a Friday morning, and that meant that Elena woke up an hour earlier than normal so that she could go lay on the balcony and write. However, the moment Elena's alarm went off, Damon was in her room bugging her.

"Hey there, Bestie," he said with a grin almost as soon as she opened her eyes. Elena eyed him for a moment, shaking her head a bit and moving to sit up in her bed.

"What could possibly be the reason you're in my room at 7:30 in the morning?" Elena groaned, sliding out of bed and grabbing her water bottle from her desk. She continued to basically ignore Damon as she moved over to her vanity, sitting down at beginning to put on a face mask. She didn't really care how he saw her. This was her morning routine, and he was going to be seeing her like this a lot it seemed.

"Well, I heard your alarm go off and I figured no eighteen year old girl gets up at 7:30 for the hell of it, so I had to see what you were up to." Damon took a seat on her bed and grabbed the remote to her T.V.

Elena turned in her chair, green face mask on. "I always get up at 7:30 on Friday mornings. It gives me an extra hour to write when the rest of the world is only half-awake. I'm just putting on a face mask, grabbing a cup of coffee, and going to sit on the balcony."

Elena got up after saying that and went downstairs to pour herself a cup of coffee. She started up her Keurig, and while it was heating up, she got out her cream and sugar, as well as popped a bagel into the toaster. She gave Damon about one minute to follow her, but he didn't so she didn't really push it. If he was giving her this small space of alone time, she would take it.

Once her coffee and bagel were ready, she headed up to the balcony and made camp before returning to her room to grab her laptop. Her eyes immediately went to Damon when she walked in, as he was now fast asleep in her bed. Rolling her eyes, she grabbed her laptop and headed back to the balcony to get to work.

* * *

 _Sure, he was kind of pretty. If you were into the whole dark and mysterious kind of thing. Which, admittedly, I am. Kale Bronco was by far the hottest guy to ever step foot in Brewton High School. He made me question everything about my life and everything that it could be, which was very exciting since I lived for adventure and a great sense of unease. It was almost as if he…completed me. Sure, we had only been talking for three minutes, but those three minutes have been the best of my life.  
_

 _Sometimes, you just meet someone and your heart knows. It knows that this is your destiny—that this is how you're supposed to end up. That's how my heart felt the first second I saw Kale Bronco. With his blond hair and his near-black eyes, he was the perfect mixture of light and dark, and it made me want to keep sighing and sighing, hoping that he would never let me go._

 _Not that he was really holding me to begin with, of course._

* * *

Elena looked up when she heard the door to the balcony open. It was Caroline, probably there to pick up her car or something. Elena closed her laptop and smiled. She could continue writing another day. "Hey there, party animal," Elena said.

"There's a really hot guy sleeping in your bed right now," Caroline said, grinning. "You crossed off number eight a lot faster than I thought you would!"

Elena narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing bad!" Caroline immediately exclaimed. "I just never expected you to be the one who would go for a one time thing. That's all."

"You're right. I wouldn't go for a one time thing." Elena said, biting her lip and leaning against the railing behind her. "That's Mr. Salvatore, my new babysitter."

"That's your body guard? Hot damn! Are you sure he can't be my number eight?" Caroline was very excited at the promise of having a hot new guy in her life.

"Yes, I'm sure," Elena rolled her eyes, stretching out her legs in front of her and turning to face Caroline a bit. "Did you get Katherine's text?"

"You mean the one saying that she's so excited to see us tomorrow? Yeah! I'm excited to see her too," Caroline said with a grin.

Katherine Pierce was the third puzzle piece in Caroline and Elena's group. The three of them had been best friends for as long as Elena could remember. All of their moms had been in the same birthing class, or whatever those things were called, and ended up picking the same daycare for all three girls. The only difference is that Caroline and Elena's moms weren't dead. Ever since that accident, they became basically her second mothers—mostly Mrs. Forbes, though.

Elena got along with Caroline more than she did with Katherine, because while Caroline's filter was pretty small, Katherine had no filter at all. Far too often, did they find themselves in a position where Katherine had accidentally offended them. However, Caroline and Elena often let it go, because Katherine was still their best friend, and she was completely trust worthy.

"Me too," Elena nodded, looking past Caroline to where Damon was now walking towards the balcony door. Once he got outside, Elena offered a curt smile, rolling her eyes a bit. "May I help you?"

Damon took a seat on the floor next to Elena. "Just making sure that you aren't going to get assassinated while you're out here," he said, turning his head to face Caroline and smiled. He held out his hand. "I'm Damon, Elena's new body guard."

"Caroline," she said, shaking his hand and smiling. "Elena's totally available best friend."

Damon raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on what was a really lame attempt at a pick up line. For that, Elena was grateful, because Caroline would have been super embarrassed.

"I'm not going to get assassinated. Nobody can get into our backyard," Elena said rolling her eyes. Seriously? How paranoid could this guy get.

Damon didn't say anything, instead just shrugging and grabbing her bagel, taking a big bite out of it. Elena's eyes widened, glaring at him slightly and crossing her arm. Damon smirked at her and put her bagel back down on her plate.

She didn't understand him. What drove a person to be so completely immature? Who took a bite out of someone's bagel, whom they just met less than 24 hours ago? A child, that's who. That's all Elena saw when she looked at him—a child. He may have been tasked with keeping her in line, but that didn't mean anything to her. That just meant that her dad had gone crazy, and maybe he shouldn't be running for vice president.

Caroline, for some unknown reason, decided to break the silence. "So, Damon, how long have you been in the body guard shebang?"

"This is my first time, actually," he said, further cementing the idea that Greyson had gone completely crazy. She shook her head, going back to her laptop, flipping it open. She thought that if she could submerge herself into the story even more than before, she could tune him out, but her mind kept listening to him, as if he were saying the most important thing in the world. "Mr. Gilbert picked me to watch after Elena because I was close to her age and nobody would suspect me to be in charge of her care. They'd think we were friends, or even dating. So, if someone were to attack her, they wouldn't see me as a threat and they'd underestimate the situation."

"But what can you actually do?" Elena asked, looking over at him and raising her eyebrow. "I mean, other than drive me crazy?"

"Well, I know three kinds of martial arts, know how to work a gun, and I'm in training to be in the Secret Service," Damon said, giving Elena and equally challenging look.

She shook her head, taking a sip of her hot coffee. "So, we're best friends now? When I'm out in public you're going to actually be talking to me and stuff? That blows. I thought you were just going to stalk me."

"Sorry, Bestie."

Caroline cleared her throat, probably trying to get Damon's attention diverted back to her. It worked though, and for that Elena was very thankful. She didn't want to deal with Damon and his sarcastic comments and infuriating personality anymore.

* * *

Later that afternoon, around 4 o'clock, Elena's phone went off. She reached over and grabbed her phone to look at it, pausing the chick flick she and Caroline (and Damon) had been watching. She squealed a little bit, looking over to Caroline excitedly.

"Kath got back early! She's heading over here now!" Elena said excitedly, flying off the couch and over to the staircase. The movie was long forgotten, Elena's focus on getting ready for a night out. Whenever Katherine came back from her summer trip to Bulgaria, the three girls went shopping and out for dinner. Elena, forgetting about Damon in the small moments, began frantically stripping as she dug through her dresser for a black skater skirt.

"Woah, close the door next time, would you?" Damon said, and Elena looked over quick enough to see him blush and turn away from her. Not really caring that he had just seen her in her bra and underwear, Elena slid on the skirt and then went into her closet to find a white tank top and jean vest.

"Sorry, I'm not used to having a boy on the hall," Elena said, beginning to brush her hair. "You can turn around now."

Damon turned around slowly to look at Elena, and she noticed the sense of ease in him as he realized she was fully clothed. "Where are we going?"

Elena tried her hardest not to flinch at the word "we." She didn't like that he was intruding on this, and she thought about calling her dad and pleading for that night to be off. However, she had a pretty good idea of how that conversation would turn out. "It's tradition to go out the night Katherine gets back into town. She's is one of my best friends," she explained to Damon. "Every summer she goes to Bulgaria to stay with her grandparents, and she comes back at some point the week before school starts. We go do dinner and then shopping. We used to party, but since I don't want to drag you into that scene yet, we probably won't do that tonight."

Damon walked over to her dresser and picked up Elena's silver locket from it's counter top. She watched him nervously. She was very protective of that locket, since it had been her mom's at one point. It was the closest thing to a connection Elena still had. "You party?" Damon asked softly, glancing up at Elena.

"Yeah, sometimes. But I don't drink or anything. I go to talk to people and try to get laid," Elena said the last part teasingly so that he wouldn't think that she was being serious.

The plan worked, because Damon rolled his eyes at her, and then changed the subject. "You should wear this necklace with that outfit," he said, handing it to her. She took it.

"I wear it all the time, actually," Elena said. "It was my mom's."

Damon nodded, and then just as quickly as he had changed subjects, he left the room. Elena watched him go, sighing as she bit her lip. She was almost in awe of him. Up until he left, they had been having a particularly decent conversation. Shaking her head, she turned back to face the mirror, leaning in to put on some lip gloss. Lastly, for the finishing touch, she clasped her locket onto her neck. This was it. It was time to go see Katherine and to introduce Damon to her world.

Ding dong.

Elena grinned at the ringing of the bell, rushing down the stairs at an impressive speed and pushing in front of Damon, who was going to answer the door for her. She threw it open.

"Katherine!" She cried out, throwing her arms around her best friend and pulling her close. Caroline soon joined in on the hug, and the three of them stood there for a good minute or two just hugging. When they finally pulled away, Katherine was the first to speak.

"I missed you guys. What's new?"

Elena and Caroline exchanged a look, and Elena decided to just come out with the biggest change in her life over the summer. "My dad made me get a body guard. This is Damon Salvatore," she said, stepping to the side so that Katherine could see him clearly.

Katherine eyed him for a moment, her brown eyes scanning over his build and then smirking softly. She tucked a strand of her long, dark hair behind her ear and took a step closer to Damon, holding out her hand.

"I'm Katherine Pierce," she said, and Elena bit her lip. If she ever felt insecure standing next to Caroline, standing next to Katherine was even worse for her self-esteem. Out of the three of them. Katherine and Elena looked a lot alike, with some noticeable differences. Katherine's hair was curly, and darker than Elena's. Guys tended to go for her more, though. Elena supposed that she shouldn't hold that against Katherine, because it wasn't her fault that she'd been gifted with a perfect genetic pool, but it still made Elena feel bad about herself.

"Damon Salvatore," he shook her hand, his eyes never leaving hers, and Elena felt an uneasy feeling settling in her stomach. This couldn't be good, and she was sure that it had something to do with the fact Katherine always got the boy when she wanted him. And, Elena supposed, Damon could do whatever he damn well pleased, because he wasn't dating Elena. It just unnerved her that Damon could end up with one of her best friends, and then she couldn't vent about him anymore.

"So, we should get going if we want to go to The Grill for dinner," Elena interrupted, stepping between Katherine and Damon. "They fill up quickly and I can only name drop so much," she said, biting her lip.

Katherine left her eyes trained on Damon for a moment longer before moving back and turning her focus to Elena, who looked like she was seriously uncomfortable. (She was.) Elena let Caroline and Katherine go out first. She thought for a brief moment about telling Damon to stay away from Katherine, but she didn't want that to get back to her dad, and then have her dad misplace it for jealousy, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Two of us can go in my car and two in Elena's. Damon? Want to ride with me?" Katherine asked, biting her lip and batting her eyelashes. Elena shot a look at Caroline, who seemed to be on the same page as Elena.

"That's ridiculous, Kath. He obviously has to ride with Elena. He's in charge of her, and something tells me Mr. Gilbert wouldn't be to keen on him dropping the duty of keeping Elena safe. I'll ride with you," Caroline said, hopping into the passenger seat of Katherine's car before she could object. Elena just shrugged, walking over to her car and unlocking it. Before she could get in the driver's side, however, Damon had taken the keys from her.

"I drive," he said, sliding into the seat and then closing the door on Elena. She sighed, not having it in her to fight the system. Besides, she didn't enjoy driving. That's why Caroline drove the two of them everywhere. She got into the passenger seat, glancing over and Damon and biting her lip. She once again wanted to say something, but knew better than to voice it. However, Damon seemed to be able to read her mind. "Just say whatever is bothering you already, Bestie."

Elena rolled her eyes at the nickname that had apparently stuck in his mind. "Nothing is bothering me, Damon. I'm just wondering why you're so infuriating," she lied.

"Liar," Damon said, following Katherine's car as they drove. "If you don't want to tell me, fine. Tell me that. I don't appreciate being lied to, especially when I'm supposed to be protecting your life."

Elena didn't say anything, instead fiddling with the radio until a song she liked came on. She sighed, leaning back into the seat and watching out the window. Mystic Falls was a particularly pretty town, but pretty much anything Elena liked to do was in a nearby town, so it was always a bit of a drive to go anywhere that she wanted to go to. She began absentmindedly braiding a small piece of her hair.

"You do that a lot," Damon said, breaking the silence, and forcing Elena to look over at him. "Braiding your hair, I mean. I've known you for a total of 20 hours or so, and I already know that it's something you do whenever you start thinking too much."

"You're awfully observant, aren't you?" Elena mused, snapping the words a bit. Damon went back to not saying anything, and Elena almost felt bad for yelling at him, but she decided against apologizing to him. Ignoring the pestering part of her that wanted to say "sorry," she pulled out her phone and sent a text to Caroline, wanting to get out of this terrible situation.

* * *

Elena shoved her phone back into her pocket, and looked out the window. She really hoped they didn't run into April at Erika's, Elena's favorite clothing store. April was a girl who always tried to get into the small friends group, and ultimately failed since none of the three girls particularly liked her. She was really annoying and always sticking her nose where it didn't belong. April worked at Erika's, and while Elena loved the clothes and accessories that were sold at Erika's, she didn't like running into April, so she didn't go there as often as she would have liked to.

She watched as the girls pulled into the parking lot for The Grill—Damon following suit almost immediately. Once he parked her car (doing a better job than she ever would have) she jumped out of the car and walked up to Kath's car. She was hoping Damon's being at the restaurant with them wouldn't impose on their evening.

"I'm going to go get us seats," Elena called out, continuing to walk to the door. She name-dropped a lot to get them into places, since people often wanted to help Elena out a lot. She got up to the door, realizing Damon was right on her tail by the reflection in the window. She walked inside and right up to the hostess. "Party of four."

"Sorry, that's going to be a twenty minute wait, darling," the waitress said, not even glancing up at Elena.

"Could we try that again? Hi, my name is Elena Gilbert, daughter of Grayson Gilbert and I have a party of four that would like to eat now." Elena said, her face hardening. The hostess looked up at her, immediately getting into a better work mode and grabbing four menus.

"Of course, Ms. Gilbert. My fault. We do have a table that you and your party can sit at," she said, beginning to walk. Elena gestured for Damon to take the lead. She waited behind a moment for Katherine and Caroline to get inside, and then the three of them continued to their table. Elena slid into her spot beside Damon and across from Caroline—which put Katherine and Damon across from each other.

Elena didn't even bother looking at a menu, because she always got the exact same thing. She was pretty easy to please when it came to this sort of thing, because she hated trying something new. Food was her one thing that remained a constant in her life. She hated trying to differ from her usuals, and anyone who tried to push her into that decision immediately got on Elena's bad list.

She tuned back into the conversation, just as Katherine started talking. "So, Damon, how come you didn't get into modeling?" Katherine winked at him, and Elena had to seriously refrain from rolling her eyes. Katherine was really flirting with him and Elena didn't really know how to deal with all of that. It made her very uncomfortable.

"I think modeling is superficial and boring," Damon said simply, shrugging a bit. "It doesn't serve any greater purpose, and I wanted to do something meaningful with my life. My dad died being a secret service agent, and I wanted to follow in his footstep. Elena, here, is my stepping stone to that."

Elena turned to look at him, smiling a bit. She was about to say something, but Katherine beat her to it.

"Wow, that is so sweet. Elena is so lucky," Katherine gushed, leaning forward and practically drooling all over Damon. Elena turned to face Caroline, deciding to leave the two of them alone. If they wanted to do whatever it was they were doing, they could. Elena didn't care about them and whether the two of them were together or not.

"So, I wonder if April is working tonight," Elena said, biting on her lip.

"Probably. It's a Friday night. She works on nights she thinks the three of us will be in there," Caroline pointed out. "We should make a point to learn her schedule and then go on her days off."

Elena nodded, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. "Well, maybe we can just have Damon distract her," she whispered, so that Katherine and Damon wouldn't hear her. "Everyone seems to think he's so delicious."

Caroline shook her head and then mouthed. "We will talk about this later."

Elena sighed, and glanced up as a waiter came up to their table.

This was going to be a long night, she could tell.

Elena put her napkin down on her nearly-empty plate. She looked around as everyone else finished up too. The waiter came back and gave them all their checks. Once payment was settled, the four were back in the parking lot.

"To Erika's right?" she asked, running her hand through her hair.

"That's the plan," Katherine said, but her eyes never left Damon. Luckily, he wasn't paying any attention to her. Elena sighed in relief, nodding as she got into the passenger seat of the car. Damon climbed into the drivers, and then started following Katherine's car.

"You're upset about something. You barely talked all of dinner, Elena." Damon glanced over at her, and Elena looked at him, tilting her head to the side a bit.

"That's the first time you've called me by my name," Elena said, raising her eyebrow.

"Don't change the subject."

"I'm not upset, just annoyed. It's not a big deal," she sighed. Damon shook his head, obviously giving up on helping her get over whatever was making her super mad. She was grateful for that, because she didn't know how to explain that it bothered her that her best friend was paying more attention to Damon than she was to Elena. Elena, unashamedly, liked being the center of attention in most situations.

The rest of that car ride was very quiet, but it wasn't an awkward kind of silence, which Elena was thankful for. She hated awkward silence, and she always felt like she had to say something just to break the tension. When they pulled into Erika's, she groaned. The first thing she saw was April's beat up Toyota in the corner of the parking lot. She was working. Hoping out of the car, Elena bit her lip as she walked up to Caroline. "Fantastic," she murmured to her, and Care sighed, shaking her head.

The four of them walked into the store, and a highly-nasal voice cut straight into Elena's hearing.

"Oh my god!" April squealed, running over to them. She said the word in one hurried rush, throwing her arms around Elena as if they'd been good friends since middle school. However, the reason why she was hugged quickly got revealed. "I was so worried I wasn't going to see you here again. Word going around is that you got a body guard, and are basically being babysat all the time. I knew it wasn't true. You're not that lame," April glanced at Damon and frowned. "Who are you?"

"He's the babysitter," Elena said, her voice hard and flat as she glared at the girl. "Guess I am that lame."

April flushed, and moved on to Caroline. Elena rolled her eyes, ignoring Damon's questioning look, and then headed for the dress section of the store. Elena had never been a huge fan of Erika's shirts and pants, but she lived for the dresses. They were always so in style, and they came for a multitude of things. Elena could find casual dresses here, as well as dresses that were able to be worn to a gala held for her dad.

"Who was that?" Damon asked, his voice soft as he came up behind Elena. She realized that Damon was starting to question if the girl could be trusted, and she sighed. April might be annoying, but she wasn't harmful in the slightest.

"Her name's April, and she's completely harmless. She just really wants to be my best friend," Elena explained, grabbing a gray baby doll dress and holding it up on her body. She turned to face Damon, sighing. "She's not a danger to me or whatever it is you're questioning me about her for."

Damon nodded, his eyes not leaving Elena's. Ever since they left the house, Damon had been acting really strange. It took her until now to realize that he was probably just doing his job and looking out for her to make sure that she was safe. He would go back to being his immature self when they got back to the house, she guessed. She wasn't really looking forward to that. He was almost tolerable here.

Elena continued flipping through dresses before coming across the perfect dress for the first day of school. It was a soft blue, which was Elena's favorite color, and it was a t-shirt dress. The thing that made it stand out, however, was the lace trim on the bottom of it.

"That's going to look good on you," Caroline said, startling Elena slightly. Looking up from the dress, she smiled. "It will bring out those gorgeous eyes of yours."

"Thank you," Elena grinned, hanging the gray dress back up. Her heart was set on the blue dress, and she knew that she would have to wear it on Monday, when classes started. "Where's Katherine?"

"Where do you think?" Caroline said, nodding in direction of the front of the store. Elena turned to see Katherine holding up various shirts and asking Damon what he thought about each of them. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Caroline, who was giving her a weird look. "What's going on? Why does that piss you off so much? It's not like you him, right?"

"God, no," Elena answered quickly, shaking her head. "No. I don't like him. I just don't want him dating Katherine is all. If he starts dating Kath, I won't know if she's coming over for me or for him. On top of that, she's going to rip out his heart like she does all the other guys."

"And then she won't want to hang out because Damon will be there, and before you know it, Katherine isn't friends with you anymore," Caroline finished.

Elena gave her a look and nodded, moving up in the store to look at the accessories that might go with her dress. She was starting to feel this unnerving dread in her stomach, and she knew that it was because Katherine and Damon were hitting it off.

"Why don't you just tell one of them to back off?" Caroline asked, digging through the ring pile. She loved rings, even though she rarely wore them. She owned a gazillion of them. Most of them didn't even fit her fingers.

"If I tell Katherine, she's going to become defensive and then want to go at him harder," Elena said, sighing and rolling her eyes. Katherine was just like that. If something became "forbidden" to her, then she only wanted it more. It didn't matter who was standing in her way.

"Okay, but what about Damon?"

"He…" Elena looked over at her body guard, who was laughing at something that Katherine had just said. "He'd probably tell my dad, and then my dad would think I was jealous. Or, even worse, Damon would think that I was jealous."

Caroline nodded, understanding what she meant. Her eyes flickered over to the pair as well. Elena shook her head and picked up a pearl necklace. "Will this go?"

Caroline's eyes came back to the present conversation, and she nodded. Elena smiled and then walked over to the counter to pay for her things. April was more than happy to ring her up, apologizing for their earlier encounter. Elena shrugged it off. She wasn't really mad at April anyways—just annoyed. When she was finished paying for her stuff, Elena turned to face Caroline and sighed. "I know we usually do a sleepover tonight, but I think if we do something might happen between the lovebirds."

"Ask Damon if he'd have to come with you if we did the sleepover at my house," Caroline offered, walking with Elena towards the front of the store. Elena nodded at her, because that wasn't such a bad idea. Walking over to Damon and Katherine, Elena bit down on her bottom lip.

"I'm ready when you guys are," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking around the store. April's gaze on them was starting to make Elena feel particularly uneasy. She couldn't quite explain why, but she was ready to get out of there.

"I'll go pay," Katherine said, sauntering away.

* * *

Elena looked over at Damon as they turned onto her street. They had ridden in complete silence back from Erika's, and it had been nice. It gave Elena the time to calm down and not over think every little thing, like she was so used to doing. However, she had to break the silence, because she had to ask about the sleepover thing.

"So, do you really have to go with me everywhere?" Elena asked, biting her lip as she looked at him.

Without hesitation, he nodded. "Why?"

"I want to spend the night at Caroline's tonight, and I don't think her mom would be all too happy with you staying there." Elena raised an eyebrow at him. She really hoped this worked, because she would hate to ruin tradition.

"I'll talk to your dad and see what I can do."

Elena grinned as Damon pulled into her driveway and stopped the car. Her dad was home; she recognized his car sitting in the driveway. Walking up to her friends, Elena smiled. "We're doing a sleepover at Caroline's tonight, right?"

Katherine pouted, looking between the two girls. "Why aren't we doing one here?"

Elena did her best to not let her smile fall. It was already getting to the point where Kath just wanted to be over so that she could talk to Damon. "Because my dad has someone coming over tomorrow morning," Elena lied, not wanting to give her real reasoning.

"We can stay at my place," Caroline nodded, opening the door to Elena's house. Elena walked in and saw that Damon was already talking to her dad about the sleepover tonight. Smiling softly to herself, she turned to face Katherine, who was giving her a strange look.

"I just don't understand why we can't stay here," she complained, continuing to give Elena her odd look. "I haven't slept at the Gilbert household in so long."

Elena didn't say anything. Instead, she shrugged and abandoned Care and Katherine. She didn't really feel like explaining why she didn't want to stay at her own house for the sleepover. She was a bit embarrassed that whatever was going on between Damon and Katherine was bothering her so much. Joining her dad and Damon, she crossed her arms. "What's the verdict?" she asked, looking between the two guys.

"No," her dad said sternly. "You either have the sleepover here or Damon goes with you."

Elena groaned, but she didn't know what she was expecting. Her dad was really hammering down about this safety stuff, and she didn't even want to know what was going to happen when school started on Monday. Instead of arguing with her dad, however, she walked back over to her friends and pouted. "Looks like I'm not allowed to go tonight," she said, surprising herself. She honestly thought she would give in and let them stay here—just putting up with the Katherine-Damon bullshit. "We can see each other later tomorrow though?"

Caroline gave Elena another odd look, to which Elena just shrugged. She said goodbye to her two best friends, giving them each a hug. Once they left, however, she could feel the tired settling in. She wouldn't have been much of a good sleepover-buddy tonight anyways. Trudging upstairs, she decided it best that she just head for bed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey! Once again, thank you so much for showing my story so much love! As always, I'll respond to my reviews!**

Livetoreadlovetoread: It's Delena, I promise! I am trying to show how insecure Elena is, especially in this chapter. So, I hope you like it!

andi721: Damon and Katherine will not be hooking up. They're just an obstacle there to irritate Elena. :) And thank you so much for your kind words about how I portray Damon! It means a lot to me :)

 **I once again remind you that this is AU (Alternate Human) and AH (All Human). I know this reminder can get annoying, but in the past, people still get confused, so i want to make it clear.**

 **Disclaimer:** **I do not own The Vampire Diaries or it's characters. Only the plot is mine.**

 **Please Review!**

 **Katia.**

* * *

"What's wrong, Bestie?" Elena squeezed her eyes shut upon hearing Damon's voice in her room. She rolled over in her bed, glaring at him as he leaned against the doorframe and sighed softly. It was late, and Elena had been unable to sleep—the whole Katherine and Damon thing really bothering her.

"Why are you in my room, Damon?" Elena asked, watching him as he moved further into his room, laying down over her covers. Their faces were aligned, and while he looked worried and confused, Elena was sure she looked disgusted that he was actually lying in the same bed as her.

"You're upset about the sleepover, aren't you?" Damon asked her, and Elena noticed him biting down on his lip. Her eyes drifted up from his mouth to his eyes, so that he wouldn't think she was thinking about kissing him or something. Because she wasn't. She didn't like Damon like that and she didn't want him getting the wrong idea.

It wasn't that Damon wasn't cute. Even Elena had to admit that, had he not been her annoying bodyguard, she would have thought he was super hot and tried to make him her number eight already. He had this dark hair that reminded Elena of dark chocolate. Don't get her started on his eyes, either, because they reminded her of the ocean. So, yeah, Elena recognized that Damon was basically superman. She just didn't want to jump him like every other female she knew. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he was annoying and a babysitter.

"No," she said softly, in response to his earlier question. Elena bit her lip and then sighed. She shook her head a bit. "Okay, yeah. But not because I couldn't go. We always have the sleepover here anyways. I'm upset that it couldn't be held here."

Damon's eyes narrowed softly, creating a soft crease in between his eyebrows. It was amazing how much more you realized about a person once you were staring at them this close. "Why couldn't you have the sleepover here?"

Elena averted her gaze, flipping onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. She didn't want to look him in the eyes while she told him what was on her mind. She didn't want to risk sounding jealous and as if she were falling in love with him or anything. "Because I was afraid if I had the sleepover here, you'd have sex with Katherine."

Damon sat up upon hearing that, looking over at her and shaking his head. "Elena…no," he said, biting down on his bottom lip again. Elena avoided looking at him the best that she could, focusing really hard on a dent in her ceiling. "I would never sleep with one of your friends. I promise. What makes you think that I would?"

"Everyone wants to sleep with Katherine because she's so drop-dead gorgeous. You've seen her. Don't tell me that you don't see it. She's hot," Elena said, somewhat bitterly since she wasn't as hot as Katherine, and she'd never even had her first kiss, let alone had someone want to sleep with her.

"I don't want to sleep with Katherine. She strikes me as the kind of girl who knows that she's hot and gets off on the fact that she can lead guys on. I don't want someone like that. I prefer the types that are really beautiful, even though they don't realize it. The types that don't flaunt their beauty. Like you," Damon said.  
Elena sent him a look. "Take that back. You're making this weird," she said, but on the inside, she was actually having a mini panic attack. Had Damon Salvatore just called her beautiful and 'his type', whatever that means? While she didn't want him to think she was beautiful, it honestly felt pretty damn good that he thought so.

"You're right," Damon said with a laugh, laying back down on her bed, now staring up at the ceiling as well. "I didn't mean it like I want to fuck you here and now. I meant to tell you to not worry about me getting with your friend. With any of your friends for that matter. I can't have anything distracting me from the ultimate goal anyways."

"And what is that? The ultimate goal?"

"Keeping you safe."

Elena looked over at him, smiling softly. That might have been the first time that she actually liked that Damon Salvatore was her body guard.

* * *

Somewhere between learning Damon's type of girl and him telling her a story about the summer he lived in Peru, Elena had fallen asleep. When she woke up, she realized that Damon must have fallen asleep as well. It was weird having a guy in her bed, but she wasn't necessarily complaining. Last night she had seen a side to him that she thought she would never see—a side that she liked. She still wasn't happy that she had a body guard, but she felt a bit better about it being him. He was still annoying though.

Elena got up from the bed, moving as carefully as possible so that she didn't wake Damon up. She moved into her bathroom to take a shower, not realizing she had left the door open a crack. She was down to her bra and underwear, about to take the bra off, when Damon strolled in. She let out a little yelp, moving her hands away from the bra clasp and looking at him. "Uh, occupied?" she said, attitude leaking into her voice. She was sure that she was blushing red though.

Damon was blushing as well, clearly embarrassed. He turned around and walked out of the room without saying anything to her. This time Elena made sure that she locked the door of the bathroom, before hopping in the shower to get ready for the day.

Once she was out, and wrapped in a towel, she headed back into her room, which was (thankfully) Damon-free. Getting dressed quickly, she threw her wet hair up into a bun and sighed as she walked down to the kitchen. She wanted a bagel before she devoted her day to working on her newest book, which felt like it was going almost nowhere.

Damon was nowhere to be found it seemed, which made Elena slightly uneasy since he always seemed to be right behind her or next to her. Putting her bagel in the toaster, she could faintly hear her dad coming down the stairs. She frowned slightly, since he was on the phone and that meant that he couldn't talk. She watched him walk out the door, waving at him slightly, before sighing. She loved her dad, but sometimes his job really affected and interfered with their relationship, which quite honestly made Elena upset. She would never ask for something different from him though. She wasn't going to be that kind of girlfriend, and she wouldn't be that kind of daughter.

Turning back to her toaster, she rescued her poor bagel from the confines of the heated prison. Upstairs, she could faintly hear the water turn on, which signaled just where her body guard must be. Sighing softly, she put her bagel on a plate, heading back upstairs. It was a rainy, August day, so she couldn't work outside. Which sucked, since the balcony is where Elena got some of her best work on her novels done. She didn't stress it too bad though, because her desk wasn't a terrible work place either. Maybe she would just edit today instead. Who knew? All she really knew was that she needed to get back to business, otherwise she would lose her touch. It's important to exercise your important skills every day, so Elena strived to write something knew in her novel every single day.

* * *

 _"So, your name is Hannah, right?" The way that Kale Bronco said my name was so beyond perfect. He, once again, made me want to never let go of this moment. To just keep this single moment going. He was speaking to me, and this might be the only moment in the world where a guy like Kale Bronco was speaking to me. I shouldn't let this moment go.  
_

 _Life is like that. Fleeting. Here one second and gone the next. So when life is so unconventionally perfect, who can really afford to lose the moments? To let them go? I know I sure couldn't._

 _"Yeah. You're Kale. Everyone knows who you are," I say softly, a soft giggle flying out of my lips before I can stop it. Luckily, Kale doesn't seem to notice—or at the very least, he isn't bothered by it._

 _"Unfortunately," I hear him say, and suddenly I realize that Kale Bronco might actually be about to pour his heart out to me._

 _"What do you mean?" I ask tentatively, hoping that he takes that invitation. Because if I can get him to talk to me about something as superficial as this, maybe I can become his best friend. We could be one of those cheesy romantic comedies where we're friends who've always been secretly in love with one another. All he has to do is tell me why he said 'unfortunately' and then we could have that._

 _"Uh, never mind. Listen, I should go to class. Maybe I'll see you around or something."_

 _And then Kale Bronco walked away from me and my heart shattered into a million pieces._

* * *

Deciding that was enough for right now, Elena got up from her desk to take her plate down to the kitchen. In the hallway, she ran into a skin covered wall, dropping the plate and looking up as she saw Damon, shirtless. "Can't you stay to your own room?" Elena asked, reaching down and grabbing the plate and skirting past him.

She could not believe that she had just done that. How had she not seen him? He was clearly in the hallway before she had been, and she had just plowed right into him. It was mortifying, to say the very least. And to top things off, he had been shirtless and she had acted like a complete idiot. He probably thought that she was super flushed because she was in love with him or whatever it was. Groaning, she shoved her plate into the sink before walking to look out the window.

It was a rainy day, which meant that she couldn't see the neighbor's house as clearly as she could if it wasn't all foggy outside. Tucking one of her thin locks behind her ear, she sighed softly. When she turned around, she came face to face with Damon. "God, stalk much?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest. She had been so nice to him last night, that it was like all this excess bitchiness was coming out now.

"I was just coming to apologize for walking in on you getting ready to shower, as well as for being in the hallway," Damon said, giving her an odd look. Elena tried hard to try and be nice to him, but it was like her default setting was to be an overwhelming bitch to him. "Obviously, I don't need to do that, because no matter what I say to you, you're just going to snap at me. What the hell is that about? I thought we hit a milestone last night where you were going to start being nice to me."

Elena glared at him, rolling her eyes a bit. "Well, you thought wrong. I was tired and I was glad you weren't going to screw my best friend. But I still don't like that you're babysitting me constantly. I bet you report everything to my dad, which means that this year is going to be the dullest year of my fucking life."

Damon opened his mouth to say something, and Elena raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. He seemed to decide against arguing with her, because he closed his mouth and just stormed upstairs. She sighed, expecting a feeling of accomplishment to wash over her. However, she just continued to feel annoyed, but more so at herself than anything else. She couldn't believe that in three short days her life had been completely turned around. Last year, Elena had vowed to never let a guy change her life, and now he dad was practically forcing that upon her.

And she wasn't stupid. She knew that there was nothing she could do about it. Her dad was going to keep Damon here no matter what she protested and complained about. However, Elena had always managed to find something to complain about on a rainy day, and this is what it happened to be today. And what, she presumed, it would continue to be in the future. There was just so much wrong with what was going on. What normal eighteen year old had a body guard?

Okay, so maybe Elena wasn't exactly _normal_ , but she definitely wasn't so special that she needed a body guard. Absolutely no one cared who she was. She rarely got photographed with her dad, and she never did anything bad in the name of Gilbert. She was pretty good about keeping under the radar. So why, all of the sudden, did her dad start to think that she was like some prize? That people were shooting and killing to get to. No one wanted her, and they never had.

Sighing, Elena rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe that she had gotten to the point where she had to actually call herself unwanted. She always knew that she wasn't the prettiest person in the world, nor was she the friendliest, but she had never called herself unwanted before. But, she guessed that was what happened when you got a body guard for absolutely no reason. You started realizing things about yourself that you never would have before this very moment.

"I need Caroline and Katherine," Elena said in a soft whisper, pulling out her phone and dialing the phone number of Caroline, figuring that the two of them would be together. When Caroline answered, she didn't even give the girl time to speak. "There's a self-esteem crisis and I need you and Katherine to come over and take my mind off of it."

"On our way, babe. You're going to be fine. Go to your room, if you aren't there already, and get out your laptop. You always feel better when you're writing. I don't care if you work on your book or on something else. Just write until we get there. We will be there in an hour, tops," Caroline's voice sang through, and it made Elena feel a bit better, though nowhere near completely better yet.

Hanging up, she went to do exactly what Caroline said while she waited for her two best friends to come over.

Only, they never did.

* * *

Four hours later, Elena looked up from her laptop, scanning the room. She had, admittedly, lost track of time, but she noticed that she had lost track of _four hours_ , and Katherine and Caroline still weren't here. Getting out of bed, she headed downstairs, confused as to why her friends weren't around.

She found Damon sitting down and watching some stupid Netflix show in the living room. She watched him from behind for a moment, shaking her head softly. She still couldn't believe this was real. She had a body guard and he was literally _always around_. What the actual hell did she do to deserve this?

"I know you're back there," Damon said, making Elena practically jump out of her clothes. "I'm the body guard for the vice-presidential candidate's daughter. Do you really think that you could sneak up on me like that, Bestie? I'm more qualified than you seem to think I am."

"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you, Damon. I was just trying to see if my friends ever stopped by today," Elena asked softly, biting the inside of her lip. She already knew the answer, but she still had to ask. Just to make sure.

"Uh, no. Nothing. Were they supposed to come over?" Damon asked, pausing his show and turning around on the couch to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

Elena shook her head. "No," she lied, shrugging a bit. "They sometimes just stop by randomly and I wanted to know if they had. That's all." She said, before heading back up to her room. If there was a silver lining to this gray cloud, she got a lot of writing and editing done in the last four hours.

Oh, who was she actually kidding? There was no silver lining. Her friends had ditched her. They never would have done that before, but now that she had the ever-intruding Damon Salvatore, they couldn't' do anything that they normally did. It sucked like hell. She grabbed her phone from her purse, and sure enough, there was a text from Caroline. "Sorry, E. Party Stefan's and Katherine wanted to go. We didn't invite you because we figured Damon wouldn't let you go. Talk tomorrow. Love you."

Angrily, Elena threw her phone across the room, shaking her head. Luckily, she had a very protective phone case so no damage would come to her phone. She wanted to scream so bad, so she walked out to her balcony and let one out. She screamed so loud, and so angrily, Damon had probably heard it downstairs and would be rushing up to make sure that she was okay any second now. Squeezing her eyes shut, she realized for the first time that she was actually crying because of everything that had happened with Katherine and Caroline. "Great," she murmured to herself, shaking her head softly as she did so.

Almost on cue, Damon was on the balcony, gun in hand. She turned to look at him, eyes flashing to the gun and then back up to his face. "I…" she said, shaking her head. "Not in danger. Just frustrated." She said softly, averting her gaze and hoping that he wouldn't be able to tell that she was crying. However, he had been able to.

Safely locking the gun and setting it down on the table, he walked up to her, tilting his head to the side and frowning. "Is everything okay, Elena?" he asked, his voice low—as if he was scared that talking to loud would startle her and make her cry even harder. "You're crying," he said, pointing out the obvious. It took every fiber in Elena's body to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just been a rough kind of day, is all," Elena said, wiping at her tears and sighing. Rough kind of day was a huge understatement, but she decided that she would just summarize it because she honestly didn't want to sit down and tell Damon every single detail of her life. Besides, sooner or later he'd figure them all out anyways. Why should she beat him to the punch?

Damon didn't look convinced, but he let her brush by him and head to her room. She was so irritated with the entire situation. She honestly didn't even know where to begin when it came to why she was crying. It was just the last couple of days had taken a lot out of her. Her entire life changed, and it wasn't even in small increments. They changed hastily, and all at once. She was thrown to the wolves.

Locking the door to her room, she walked over to crawl into her bed. She didn't care that she wasn't wearing her pajamas. She didn't care that it was only five o'clock in the afternoon. She just felt emotionally drained. She was tired, and she didn't know if she could handle this kind of day anymore. What kind of life was it if you couldn't live it the way that you wanted to, anyways? She might as well get used to it, since this was how her life was going to be for quite some time. Damon would always be right beside her. Pretty soon the rumors would start that Elena had finally started dating. She didn't even want to tap into that iceberg tonight. She couldn't. Her mind just wouldn't be able to handle it. There was too much going on. She was having sensory overload.

* * *

A loud banging noise woke Elena up, and she was _not_ happy about it. Sitting up, she noticed that the noise came from her door. Of course it did. Damon was probably freaking out that he couldn't spy on her or whatever it is that he's doing when he walks past her door forty-fucking-million times a day. She didn't want to leave the warm embrace of her bed, but she did anyways. Unlocking and opening her door, she glared as she came face to face with, you guessed it, Damon.

"What?" She said, snapping at him. She wasn't the easiest person to get along with when she was rudely interrupted from sleeping. It took her a good hour to get over the feeling of being disturbed.

"I had to make sure you were safe. I got a phone call that someone was walking the streets with a gun," Damon said, stepping inside of her room and beginning to check all of the nooks and crannies that it had. Elena watched in annoyance, hating that this was even that big of a deal to him.

"Would you relax? I'm fine. I was just sleeping!" Elena said, gesturing to the very-slept-in bed.

"I'm not leaving your room until I get clarification that this guy with a gun has left the neighborhood," Damon said, setting down the gun that he was carrying on her night stand and then crawling into her bed. Elena rolled her eyes, but she didn't complain because she knew that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Sighing, she handed him the remote to her T.V., before crawling into her side of the bed.

He was still watching the same stupid show that he had been watching earlier that day. It was just a new episode, and Elena had honestly never been so lost in her life. She didn't understand the characters, or what they were doing, and she certainly didn't understand why everyone had some weird accent that sounded like a cross between British and southern. Glancing up at him, she realized that he wasn't very into the show at that moment either. He was staring at the window. He really was determined to keep her safe.

Shaking her head, she turned so that her back was facing him and grabbed her laptop to work on her story. In doing so, she had knocked her phone off of her night stand. She reached down to grab it, realizing that she had yet another text from Caroline. Though, this one was a little bit better than the one she had received before. "I know you're mad at us, but hear me out. I think I can make it up to you. There's a foreign guy at this party, and he knows your name. If you get here soon, you might be able to pull off number 8 tonight. Katherine can keep Damon busy.

Elena checked the timestamp on the message and grinned. It was only ten minutes ago. Turning to face the only man she had so far been able to get into her bed, she grinned. "Would it be better if we just got away from the guy with the gun? Like, went to a different neighborhood or something?" Elena offered, biting her lip.

"Yeah, that would work. Why?"

"Put on some nice clothes, Damon Salvatore. You're going to have to pretend to be a spoiled high schooler tonight." Elena said, rushing to her closet to get ready. With her dad not home, she was free to go ahead and get ready the way that she wanted to. Well, as much as she could in about ten minutes since she didn't want to lose out on her opportunity to cross off number eight on the list. Which, coincidentally, would also cross off number one. She was ready to go.

* * *

"You took me to a party?" Damon said once Elena had parked and gotten out of the car. The entire car ride there, Damon had been asking where they were going and Elena had said that they were just going to one of her friends' houses. Which, technically, wasn't a lie. Her and Stefan used to be friends back in middle school until he became Team Klaus in the Klaus versus Elena war.

"Yes, but don't freak out. They aren't like they are in the movies," Elena said, brushing past him and walking closer and closer to the front door. Before she could get there, however, Damon grabbed her arm. She was pulled to face him, her chest pressing against his.

"Elena, do you have any idea how hard it will be for me to keep track of you here?" he asked her, keeping his voice low. Anyone watching the two of them would definitely think that they were dating.

Elena looked up at him, glaring slightly. "Damon, I'll be okay. I do this kind of thing all the time and I've never gotten hurt before. I was at a party the night I met you!" Elena pointed out. He was overreacting about the whole situation, and Elena wasn't having that. She didn't care how much he wanted to stay at her side at all times. She was crossing off two items off her list tonight, whether he liked it or not.

Before Damon could answer her, Elena had wrenched her arm free from his grasp and started walking up to the house. She got inside, beginning to look around for her best friends when her eyes landed on something else walking her way and she panicked a bit. Klaus.

"Well, well, well, baby. Looks like you got that babysitter after all," Klaus said, looking back at Damon and then at her. "You can say whatever you want, but he's babysitting you."

Elena glared, opening her mouth to snap at him, but Damon had beat her to the punch. "Elena? Why is this guy calling you baby?"

Elena glanced between the two guys, and she was sure that she was going to regret this next choice for the rest of her life. But she had to do it, because she hated it when Klaus was right. And she couldn't let him be right.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she looked at Damon and shrugged a bit. "I honestly have no clue, baby. He's just being weird." Elena said, grabbing Damon's hand and intertwining their fingers. He gave her a weird look, but he somehow knew better than to question her in that very moment. "Asking me about some babysitter I never got."

Klaus raised an eyebrow as he looked between Damon and Elena. "You? Dating someone like her? Come on. Even OK magazine wouldn't believe that."

"What do you mean 'someone like her?'" Damon snapped, taking a step closer to Elena. "There's nothing wrong with her. Now scram before I make there be something wrong with you."

Klaus gave Damon a look, but he didn't question it. Instead, he just walked off. Elena sighed, shaking her head before looking up at Damon. Their hands were still intertwined. "Thank you," she said softly. "I'm sorry."

Damon shook his head. "Don't be sorry. Who was that kid?"

"Klaus Mikaelson. His dad's a politician, and I hate him," Elena said with a scowl. Damon noticed the distaste in her voice, and nodded softly. She watched him as he raised a hand, leaning closer and tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Well, then I guess that means were dating now. Pretending to date, that is," Damon said, before pulling away from her and walking off. "I'm going to go get some water. You want one."

"Yes please," Elena said with a smile before watching him go. She rolled her eyes once he was gone and then walked over to where she finally spotted Katherine and Caroline. They gave her both a look, glancing at Damon. She shook her head, signaling that she didn't want to talk about it right that very second. And she meant that. She didn't want to talk about everything that had just gone down.

She didn't want to think about the fact that her first boyfriend wasn't even her real boyfriend, but her body guard instead.

"Where's the foreign guy?" Elena asked, biting her lip.

Katherine frowned. "He's hitting on all the guys at this party. Didn't notice until you were here."

Elena rolled her eyes, sighing a bit. "Of course. Why wouldn't fate have laid that out for me?" She murmured to herself, shaking her head.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey! Once again, thank you so much for showing my story so much love! As always, I'll respond to my reviews!**

Guest: "I love this story! I love how you're portraying Damon! Keep up the good work, and please update soon! Xoxo!" Thank you so much! Means the world to me! Xo

Guest: "Great story, update soon!" Thank you!

Imarifirst (CH 2): Thank you for your review, it means a lot. I have a lot of plans for each of these characters, so don't worry about anything :) I like to believe the connection has already come into play, just in the sweeter, softer moments, you know? Like in CH 3, when they were lying in bed. It's not going to be an automatic friendship, as that's not realistic. As for Elena tossing her dad's name around, she's a politician's daughter, and she was always raised to be a bit bratty and entitled. She's going to work hard to overcome that though in this story.

Imarifirst (CH 3): Elena is nasty with Damon because he gets on her nerves and even though it's not his fault that she has a bodyguard, he's still the one who is "Ruining" her senior year in her mind. It's a who you are in the face of an obstacle sort of thing. I'd really appreciate it if you'd quit calling Caroline and Katherine "slutty and blabbermouth" because they're Elena's best friends in this story, and they play a big role.

andi712: Thank you! That's one of my favorite scenes so far, I think, when Damon tells her that she's the ultimate goal. I think it's such a sweet scene between the two characters.

livetoreadlovetoread: Elena does not have blonde hair. If it said that she did somewhere, then it's a typo, and I'm sorry for the confusion! She has long brown hair, just like in the earlier season (1-3). Thank you for pointing that out to me! I am portraying her as _thinking_ she's plain looking. Just to tap into that insecurity that she has because she's been on magazine covers since she was little and such.

 **I once again remind you that this is AU (Alternate Human) and AH (All Human). I know this reminder can get annoying, but in the past, people still get confused, so i want to make it clear.**

 **Disclaimer:** **I do not own The Vampire Diaries or it's characters. Only the plot is mine.**

 **Please Review!**

 **Katia.**

* * *

Damon and Elena left the party about an hour after they got there. It took about half that for word to get around that Elena was now dating someone. The other half was taken up by girls coming up and asking Elena how her and her new boyfriend met. The answer? He bought her coffee at Starbucks and had the barista write his phone number on it because he thought it was cute. Cue the dramatic eye roll, because that was not the story Elena would have picked. However, Caroline had beaten her to the question.

The next day had been a particularly lazy day, in which Elena got her things all together for school and then edited some more of her novel. She also got to play a game of poker with Damon and her dad. Her dad hadn't heard about the dating rumors yet, but she was pretty sure they would make some kind of newspaper or Facebook post soon. He would think it was fantastic that Elena had taken him up on his idea.

Monday morning proved to be the easiest since Damon Salvatore came into her life. When her alarm went off at promptly 6:45, she sat right up, a big smile on her face. This was it—the first day of senior year. A lot of people coined it as 'their last first day.' Elena used to think that was stupid, but now that it was here, she could just see herself referring to it as that.

The morning went by in a rush, but Elena was glad about that. If it had drug on, she would have started to overthink things, and her first day might have been a total disaster. She was wearing the pink dress she had gotten at Erika's, and she actually felt good about herself for the first time in a long time. It was actually a pretty nice feeling.

"You look nice," Damon's voice drifted in from the door. Elena caught his eye through her mirror. "Are you excited for the first day of school?"

"That depends," Elena said, biting her lip and then pulling away to put some lotion on her hand. "Are we on the front page of magazines or anything yet?"

"Nope. As far as anyone knows, I'm just a crazy stalker," Damon said, and Elena noted that he was still in his pajamas.

"Aren't you supposed to be going to school with me?" Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, but we aren't leaving for another thirty minutes. I'll change closer to that," Damon said, giving her a look.

She shook her head, sighing a bit. She wasn't going to argue with him right now, because she didn't need anything, or anyone, ruining this day. She was a senior in high school, and she was a shoe in to be the Student Body President this year. Her dad was going to be so proud of her.

It's not that her dad wasn't proud of her now. She was a fairly good kid. She didn't usually get into trouble, and the trouble that she did get into was miniscule. The problem, however, was that Elena didn't bring in a lot of good press for her dad, even if she brought in zero bad press. She was hoping that becoming Student Body President and joining the debate team this year would gain him some positive attention for his vice-presidential campaign. She could see the headlines now. "VP Candidate Gilbert's Daughter Follows in his Footsteps." She could only hope that would make her dad the tiniest bit more proud of her, especially since they were a little rocky right now, since he had brought Damon into her life.

"How much more can you possibly do to your hair?" Damon asked, and she raised an eyebrow from where she was putting a shining spray on her brown locks. "It looks fine, and you keep layering product onto it. I do not understand women."

"That much is obvious," Elena said softly, hoping that Damon wouldn't be able to hear. Unfortunately for her, he had been able to hear it.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that even though you've obviously got the looks to get a girlfriend, you're lacking in that department. Which means that you don't understand women. I further my point with the fact that you probably don't understand what coral is versus pink. Women care about this stuff," she said, raising an eyebrow at him and sighing a little bit.

"Excuse me, but I'll have you know that I do have a girlfriend," Damon said, standing up and going out of her room.

Elena frowned, setting down the shining spray and walking towards her door. "You do? What poor, unfortunate soul is dating you?"

Damon stuck his head back into her room, smirking a little bit at her. "Her name's Elena Gilbert. She's not very cute though; she's built like an eleven year old."

Elena groaned, grabbing a pillow and throwing it at him, but he had already scurried down the hallway to his room.

* * *

"Your dad didn't mention that you went to Mystic Falls High School," Damon said slowly when he parked. Elena looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Is that a problem?" Elena asked, kind of hoping that he said yes because that meant he might not be her body guard anymore. Which meant that she might not have a body guard anymore. Senior year could be a hell of a lot easier. "I mean, it's the high school around here."

"Yes, but it's fine. I'll deal with it," Damon said, getting out of the car. Elena watched him for a moment before grabbing her bag and getting out of the car as well. She walked up beside Damon, looking over at him.

"What's the problem?"

"You're about to figure out," Damon said, and Elena noticed that his eyes were trained on a brunette on the other side of the parking lot: Rebekah Mikaelson. She was a senior, like Elena, and she was a total bitch. At least, that's what Katherine said. Elena had never actually spoken to Rebekah, but she took the word of mouth. Katherine was usually a pretty great judge of character.

About this time, Rebekah looked over. It was like fate, her eyes landing on Damon's. Elena could write about this moment, and it could be a very powerful scene. Two lovers meet for the first time, and it's as if they've known each other their whole lives. However, while that's the way Elena was expecting that to go—it didn't. Instead, Rebekah Mikaelson glared at Damon, and then at Elena before storming inside.

"What the hell was that about?" Elena asked, glancing up at her body guard, shaking her head a bit. She didn't really understand what had just happened.

"That's my ex-girlfriend. We dated for two years before breaking up. I left her because I wanted to pursue my dream to be in the Secret Service, and she didn't agree with that. I put my job ahead of her, and she didn't like it," Damon said, shaking his head as he watched Rebekah go. Elena opened her mouth to say something, but she realized that there wasn't anything she could say to make the situation better. She wasn't going to transfer schools, and she wasn't going to tell Rebekah that she needed to back off of Damon. Elena could be a feisty bitch, but she still had the ability to use common sense.

Not answering Damon, Elena just sighed before heading towards the building. About halfway towards the school, she spun around on her heel and gave Damon a look. "Wait a second," she said, crossing her arms. "Exactly how are you going to be getting into the school?"

Damon, of course, had an answer. "Your dad called. They know to let me in. I'm just going to be pretending to be a student. We'll have the same schedule and everything." Damon said, before abandoning Elena and going to the office to get his schedule. Or, at least, that's what Elena assumed he was getting since he was dressed like a preppy school boy.

Elena sighed, walking into the common room and walking over to where she saw Caroline and Katherine. Sitting down beside them, she groaned softly, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Caroline gave her a look, but Elena shook her head before Caroline could ask. She didn't want to talk about Damon's relationship problems in front of Katherine. The girl was already crazy about getting into his pants as it was. Elena didn't want to edge it on by telling her that he was looking for a rebound.

Not that she was really sure he was looking for a rebound. Elena didn't really know anything about relationships and dating, if she were going to be completely honest. Her experience with those things was miniscule. The extent of her knowledge was limited to her book characters. She wouldn't know anything about real life rebounds or one night stands, even if she tried.

"Word is spreading like wildfire about you and Damon," Katherine said, causing Elena to be torn from her thoughts on her pathetic dating life. "I swear that even the teachers know about your new 'boyfriend.'"

"Of course they do," Elena mumbled, burying her head into her arms and groaning. She wanted to complain so much more, but she stopped herself. This was her senior year, and she was going to try her damned best to make it a great year. Damon might get in the way occasionally, but he would not ruin The List. "You know what, though? I don't care. Let them talk about me."

"That's the spirit. Now, pick your head up, give me that magazine cover smile, and let's rock our senior year, yeah?" Caroline said, and when Elena followed the first part of her instructions, she smiled.

Sighing, Elena followed the second part of her request, giving Caroline the smile that she used whenever she was being photographed with her dad. Caroline grinned at her, causing Elena to sigh.

"That's my girl," Damon said, taking a seat next to Elena and wrapping his arm around her waist. She turned her head to scold him for the contact, but her classmates eyes are on her, so instead, she leans her head against his shoulder.

"Even my teachers have heard about our relationship. Isn't that great?" Elena asks, plastering a fake smile. "The entire school knows, and I hope that it doesn't upset anyone that we're dating. Do you think I need to be worried?" Her teeth are grinding together as she tries to maintain her best fake smile. It's obvious who she's talking about—Rebekah. The two had never had a problem before, but that didn't mean a problem couldn't be accidentally created.

"No, you don't," he says, and then lowers his voice and leans in to whisper in Elena's ear. "If she says anything to you, let me know."

Elena nods, standing up and giving him a look. As if on cue, the bell for classes ring, signaling ten minutes until classes start, she grins. "See you after school?"

"Actually, you'll see me in all of your classes."

He walks away, leaving Elena to groan.

* * *

The first couple of classes were boring and the same as they always had been. Elena was excited for her after lunch classes, however, since she was doing dual enrollment at the local college, Whitmore. Her last three classes were going to be more advanced and somewhat geared towards what she wanted to do with her life. The one she was most excited was Introduction to Fiction Writing.

In order to get to the better half of her day, though, Elena had to get through classes with Damon. As if to make matters worse, she shared her lunch period with not just Katherine (who was still trying to get in Damon's pants), but with Rebekah Mikaelson. The looks her and Damon were getting were nauseating from everyone else, but from Rebekah? They were terrifying. She was sure that Rebekah was going to try and rip her head off.

"You look like you're about to die," Katherine said, causing Elena to be snapped from Rebekah's gaze. "You cannot be dreading your college classes that much."

"I'm not dreading them at all, actually," Elena said as Damon slid into the chair next to her, his arm wrapping around her waist. She tried her hardest not to flinch at his touch, because she did not want his arm on her. "Psychology, English 101, and Intro to Fiction Writing? Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing I'd be good at?"

"Okay," Katherine drawled out. "Then what were you staring at? Because you didn't look happy to see whatever it was."

Before Elena could muster an answer, Katherine had turned around and was scanning the section of the cafeteria that Elena had been staring at. Her eyes narrowed softly, and she turned back to face her friend. "Why are you getting death glares from Rebekah Mikaelson?"

Elena wasn't really sure what to say, so she just shrugged. She felt Damon tense up a bit next to her, and, for a moment, she thought that he was going to tell Katherine who Rebekah was. He didn't though, so Elena continued to pretend she didn't know why she was receiving Rebekah's wrath.

"Want me to deal with her?" Katherine asked and Elena couldn't shake her head fast enough. She was sure that Katherine talking to Rebekah wouldn't go well, and she didn't even want to risk that. She could handle a glare every once and a while, but she couldn't handle Rebekah hating her even more.

"No, no," Elena said, sighing.

"I think it might be a better idea if I talked to her," Damon said, surprising Elena. She turned her head to face him, narrowing her eyes a bit. She was confused on what he meant by talking to Rebekah.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, maybe I can talk some sense into her and convince her that you shouldn't be receiving any threats."

Elena noticed the look that Katherine threw her way, but was glad when Kath didn't comment. She could tell that Damon didn't want other people to know about his and Rebekah's past.

"Maybe, but I don't know if that's really a good idea. Let's talk about that when there's not so many people around, yeah?" Elena said, trying to convey that she wanted to know what he was going to tell Rebekah before he told her.

Damon nodded and continued to eat his lunch in silence, obviously done with the conversation. Elena couldn't blame him, and turned her attention back towards her best friend. Katherine's eyes were trained on Damon, and Elena couldn't help herself. She kicked at Katherine's leg underneath the table. When their eyes met, Elena shook her head. Katherine rolled her eyes, but complied with Elena's gesture nonetheless.

* * *

The rest of the day came to a close, and Elena was thankful when she walked out of her English 101 class. It was a small class, consisting of only ten students, but that meant the teacher was more observant. She called on Elena several times when Elena hadn't been paying attention, and it made her feel like an idiot.

Things didn't get much better when she walked out to the parking lot and noticed Rebekah was standing next to Damon's car. Elena looked around for Damon, but he was nowhere to be seen. Deciding that she better toughen up and talk to Rebekah, Elena made her way to the car.

"We need to talk," Rebekah said, and her voice wasn't polite. Every bad thing Elena had heard about Rebekah flooded to her mind. However, Elena wasn't one to judge someone without giving them a benefit of the doubt. So, she'd listen to Rebekah, no matter how much she didn't want to.

"Okay," Elena said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow. "Then let's talk. What do you want?"

"Damon and I used to date, you know."

"I know. He told me. You're aware that you two broke up, right? I'm not trying to step on any toes or anything, but it's not like he's doing anything wrong."

"I'm aware that the two of us broke up. What I wasn't aware of was that he had moved on so quickly. Then it dawned on me."

"What dawned on you?"

"That he wasn't moved on. Everyone says that you were getting a bodyguard. My brother, Klaus, spread it around the entire school. However, you showed up to school the first day with a boyfriend, not a body guard. Now, I know Damon. He wanted to be in the Social Service. So, it makes sense that he would be some spoiled politician's daughter's security guard. He's not really your boyfriend," Rebekah said, and Elena was pretty sure all the color had drained from her face. If Rebekah went spreading this around the whole school, everyone would know she was lying. It would impact her chances of being student body president, and it could possibly put a dent in her dad's campaign.

"Yes, he is," Elena defended herself, but it was no use. Rebekah waved her hand, her eyes catching on something in the distance.

"Oh, yeah? I don't believe you," Rebekah said, and Elena turned to see what she was staring at. Damon was coming towards them, a concerned look on his face. Elena turned back to face Rebekah and sighed.

"Then I'll prove it," she said, surprising herself. She turned on her heel and stalked towards Damon. Before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, Elena grasped the back of his neck and brought his head down to hers. Their lips met, and Elena tried not to think too hard about how nice his lips felt.

She also tried not to think about how this was her first kiss.


	5. Author's Note!

**Hey guys!**

 **I probably won't update for about another week or so! It's finals and move out day coming up for me, and I don't have time to write. Once I'm home, I'll work hard on giving you TWO chapters to make up for it!**

 **Thank you!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey guys!**

 **For starters, I'd just like to apologize for the delay on this chapter. I had finals, then moving home and getting back to work. I just had barely any time to write, but I'm so glad to be back. I hope you haven't given up on this story yet! Now, for the reviews:**

Livetoreadlovetoread (CH 4): Thank you so much! I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint, even though it took forever to get up :)

andi712 (CH 4): My goal in this story is to try and make Katherine a bit more likable than she is in the show (because she's one of my absolute favorites) while still staying true to her personality. So, I'm glad that you're liking her a bit :) As for Damon's teasing, it's some of my favorite lines to write haha.

Guest (CH 4): _"_ _Thank you for updating so soon! Love where the story is going! Keep up the excellent work! Update soon!"_ Thank you so much!

Guest (CH 4): _"_ _Wtf is Elena's hair blonde :s"_ As expressed in an earlier author's note, the original draft of the first four chapters, it was an original novel, in which my main character was blonde. I was converting it into a fanfiction story. Anywhere it said her hair was blonde, was simply something I didn't catch while editing.

Imarifirst (CH 4): Katherine is still drooling over Damon, because his relationship with Elena is not real at the moment. They are fake dating, and Katherine knows that. Therefore, it's not disrespectful, given that Elena harbors no real love or feelings for Damon at the moment.

Guest (CH 4): _"_ _o this just got real I love your story so much youre soooo talented! how did you come with the idea for this story?"_ Thank you so much! I got the idea from a roleplay that I'm a part of, in which I have a pair of characters who have a similar relationship (bodyguard/Political Candidates daughter). Their story is much different than how I'm writing this story, however, but that's where the inspiration came from :).

Charmedbycharmed (CH 4): Wow! I never thought about that possibility...It could be interesting. I'll take it into consideration, and I'll totally let you know :)

meigs37 (Ch 4): I know!

Livetoreadlovetoread (Author's Note): I missed you as well! I'm sorry that real life got busy :)

LeLoveMyAmour (Author's Note): Thank you so much!

LinaBug (Author's Note): Thank you!

Ella (Guest) (CH 3): _"_ _Please, please update soon. I'm so into this story and I neeeed more :D_ _Also, good luck with your finals, if you haven't already done them :)"_ I'm so glad that you're loving my story! Thank you!

Guest (Author's Note): _"_ _Good luck with your finals! Can't wait for your next update! :)"_ Thank you!

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or it's characters. The only thing that's mine is the plot.**

 **Please Review!**

 **Katia**

* * *

"Are we not going to talk about it, then?" Damon's voice drifted across the air as he made a right turn.

"I would rather not, thanks," Elena said, staring out the window.

After their kiss, Rebekah had stormed off, and Elena couldn't really blame her. She both hated herself and was proud of herself for hurting Rebekah like that. Maybe that made her a terrible person, but Rebekah was about to ruin her entire plan with Damon. Elena couldn't let that happen—didn't want to let that happen.

"I wasn't really giving you a choice, 'Lena," Damon said, and she turned to look at him. "I want to talk about it."

"Well, I don't."

Damon, thankfully, dropped it after that. The rest of the car ride home was quiet, and Elena was thankful for that. She wasn't sure if she could handle talking about how she had just marked off something off her list, but in a way she never wanted to. She had just lost her first kiss to a boy who was pretending to be her boyfriend so that people didn't know he was her babysitter. That was the epitome of the worst first kiss.

Was it the worst first kiss? Elena wasn't really sure if that was what she could think of it that way. It hadn't been bad, actually. It wasn't her ideal way to lose her first kiss, but it wasn't bad. In fact, Elena had kind of enjoyed it. Of course, it wasn't because it was Damon. It was because Damon was a good kisser.

There was a difference, okay?

The long silence ended once they were parked in the driveway. Damon parked the car, but didn't get out. He didn't even undo his seatbelt. When Elena went to grab the door handle, he had grabbed her arm to stop her. She turned to face him, her brown hair bouncing over her shoulder.

"What?" she asked, when he didn't speak right away.

"Nothing," Damon said, letting go of her and then getting out of the car, leaving Elena to stare off after him in disbelief. He was so infuriating. She pushed her way out of the car and then grabbed her bag, heading up to her room

She just wanted to do her homework and forget about the shitty events that had happened after school. Her bag landed with a thud on her bed. Her hair was up in a bun in no time, out of her face. She grabbed her homework for her first class and then turned on her music so that she could work and drown out all kinds of distractions.

Unfortunately for her, her mind wouldn't stop replaying the scene in the parking lot. It was frustrating to have Damon occupying her thoughts that much, and Elena just wanted to shut it all off. But, there he was, and she was walking towards him before kissing him for the first time. Before kissing anyone for the first time, if technicalities were applied. She had wasted her first kiss on some stupid ploy.

 _Not to mention the jealousy you wished to inspire_. Elena thought with a start, even scaring herself. She didn't mean that, did she? Had she kissed Damon in order to make Rebekah jealous? No. That was insane. She didn't care about Rebekah, and she had no desire to make her jealous. _Maybe not her, but I can think of someone else who will be affected by your kissing Linc._

Katherine. That made a little bit more sense. Of course Elena would want to make Katherine jealous. Elena had always wanted to feel like she were a little bit better than Katherine, admittedly. It was hard to face that reality now, knowing that she kissed Damon partially because she knew that it might hurt Kath.

Would it? Elena wasn't sure. Katherine might not even hear about the kiss and then Elena could put it out of her mind. It wasn't like Rebekah was going to brag about the embarrassment that she had been through. Kath wouldn't even know that she had kissed Damon. It was going to be just fine, and she really could pretend that it never happened. She bet that Damon would be okay with forgetting it too.

With a sigh, Elena noticed that she had wasted almost ten minutes just sitting at her desk and worrying about the parking lot scene. She really needed to get her homework done, but she couldn't seem to concentrate on it. She needed to clear her mind, and luckily Elena had a method that always worked for her.

Grabbing her laptop, she opened up her favorite word processor.

* * *

 _Kale Bronco hasn't spoken to me since our one moment in the hall. I know that I shouldn't be fixating too much on it. He had many better things to do than talk to me. He had girls like Daniella Robertson going after him. I wasn't worth much when in comparison to a girl like that.  
_

 _"Hannah, you're doing that thing again," my best friend whispered to me softly. We were sitting in our algebra class that morning. I snapped out of my Kale-mind and turned to face her._

 _"What thing?"_

 _"Where you drift off and you—"_

 _"Hannah!" I turn to see that Mr. Wilson is yelling at me. At the door, stood none other than Kale Bronco. My eyes widened a bit, wondering why he was here. "Step outside with Mr. Bronco here."_

 _I nod, standing up and moving to go out to the hallway, biting my lip. Kale Bronco wanted to talk to me. To me! How weird was that. "Hey," I said awkwardly, pulling the door closed behind me and giving him a look._

 _Kale smiled at me. "Hey. You're the girl who painted that big mural at the front of the school, right?" he asked, and I almost let my smile fade. Here I'd been, thinking that he might have wanted to talk to me, not talk to me about my art._

 _"Um, yeah. Why?" I asked, moving my gaze away from him now, trying not to look seriously affected by everything._

 _"The Student Government Association needs a new poster decorator, and someone said that we should get whoever painted that mural. I thought it could be kind of fun to be working together on some things too," Kale said with a smile, and I looked up, unable to stop myself from grinning back._

* * *

"Okay, I changed my mind. It's not nothing, Elena. You kissed me," Damon's voice broke Elena's mind as she wrote, causing her to turn around to face him, concern on her face. "And I know that we're supposed to be dating, but that was not something to prove anything, Elena. You kissed me to make my ex-girlfriend jealous."

"Woah," Elena said, standing up and giving him a look. "I did _not_ kiss you to make Rebekah jealous, Damon. Let's get that straight right now. I don't care if Rebekah is jealous or not. I care about her blowing our cover and me getting called a liar publicly while my dad is running for what is, quite literally, the biggest role of his life. And she didn't believe we were dating, so I kissed you to prove a point. Don't get all judgy with me."

Damon was silent at first, just shaking his head as he looked at her. Awkward silences rolled around between the two of them a couple of times, but this one had to top the charts. When he spoke again, he crossed his arms. "Next time you decide to kiss me in the middle of a parking lot, I want a warning, Elena. Your dad is going to hear about this, and it's going to make things a lot more complicated. _I could lose my job_."

"Maybe I don't want you around anymore, Damon. Haven't I made that clear? I don't want a babysitter, or a bodyguard, or a whatever you are." Elena said, narrowing her eyes at him and shaking her head.

Damon uncrossed his arms, dragging a hand through his dark hair, looking at her. "Quit being a spoiled brat, Elena. I'm sorry your dad wanted to hire me this year. I'm sorry that you're so upset about it. But this is my job. If I get fired from protecting some stuck-up teenager, I don't get to join the Secret Service. You are messing with my career, Elena. You are going to ruin everything I've worked for since the moment I turned eighteen."

Elena was silent after that. Of course the thought that this wasn't just some joke to him had never crossed her mind. She sometimes forgot that this was his job, and that her dad had actually hired him. And while she didn't actually kiss Damon so that her dad would see it and fire him, she felt bad for suggesting that maybe she had. What did that say about her, after all?

Damon took her silence as her way of just ending the argument. They were obviously still very upset with one another, or at least him with her, and he couldn't stand to be in the same room at the moment. "I'm going to my room. Scream if you're about to die."

* * *

The rest of the night had been quiet for the two of them. Elena got her homework done, grabbed food to just bring up to her room, and the two barely said a word to one another. When her dad got home, he asked to speak to Damon in his office, and even though Elena had been complaining about not having a body guard since she got one, she was worried that her dad was about to fire him. She didn't want to be the reason that Damon lost his job in the field that he'd been working so hard to be a part of for so long. However, Damon emerged, a soft smile on his face, before locking himself back in his room. Elena was relieved to see him not packing. She would never admit that—not even to him.

The next morning, was quiet too, but less awkward when they passed one another in the hall. Bridgette got ready for her second day without his interruptions, which felt significantly more normal than usual. Maybe they could come to a mutual understanding about these kinds of things, and they'd find common ground. One could hope for that, couldn't they?

In the car on the way to school that morning, Damon finally broke the silence between the two of them. "Your dad thinks it's great that we decided to pretend we're dating. He thinks that makes me like a hidden weapon or something like that."

"My dad talks about secret weapons all the time," Elena said, glancing over at him with a soft sigh, leaning against the door slightly. "So, I wouldn't take it as too much of a compliment."

Damon glanced over at her, but he could see the feintest sign of a smirk on her face, and he knew that she must be joking. So, he let it pass. They needed to get back to at least being semi-comfortable before he pulled into that school parking lot. This act had to be believable. "Right. I'll try not to let it get to my head, but I am a pretty great secret weapon," he said with a smirk.

"Your ego is the size of Manhattan," Elena couldn't help but murmur and Damon laughed a bit, just glancing at her and shaking his head. "You should really try toning it down some."

Damon laughed, but didn't say anything. Things were still awkward between the two of them, and he glanced over at her. "I'm sorry for yelling at you," he told her as he came up to a stop sign, biting down on his bottom lip some. "I still think it was a fully reasonable thing to yell about, but I shouldn't have yelled."

"Don't apologize. It sounds weird," Elena said as the car started going again. They shared another smile, and just like that, the bad air between the two seemed to be gone.

* * *

The first half of the school day went by fast. Considering Damon and Elena hadn't made it to school until five minutes before the bell rang, they had to practically rush to her class. However, they'd made it. But, Elena couldn't wait to sit down and relax at lunch. And, even more exciting, talk to her best friend.

"You were late this morning," Katherine said as Elena sat down with her tray, causing Elena to roll her eyes, a smile ghosting her lips anyways.

"I made it to class on time, though. So, I wasn't _that_ late," Elena pointed out as she stabbed a piece of her salad.

Katherine gave her a look, sighing some. "So," she said, looking around, specifically at Damon's seat that was now empty, "You kissed Damon yesterday in the parking lot? Why?"

And there it was, the moment that Elena had been dreading. Having to confront her friends about having lost her first kiss yesterday to someone she didn't even remotely find attractive. (Okay, well, that was a lie, but she didn't really feel like getting into that right now.) It was hard enough to have the conversation with Caroline last night on the phone, but talking to Katherine about it face to face? Made it about 100 times more awkward.

"Someone doubted that we were dating, and I wanted to prove them wrong," Elena said simply, shrugging a bit.

"But you know I like him, right?" Katherine said, and Elena looked up at her, eyes widening a bit. Katherine was rarely so laser-focused and set on one guy, so this was new. She never expressed her feelings about a guy so blatantly before, so Elena had no idea how she was expected to react right this very moment.

"I…" Elena started to say, but suddenly Damon was there, grabbing her arm and yanking her out of her seat. "What are you doing?" she asked hurriedly, and he was pulling her away.

This was the most serious she'd ever seen Damon before, and something in her gut told her that something was wrong.

"There's somebody outside the school with a gun. I'm getting you somewhere safe," Damon said, and Elena's entire body twitched. Somebody outside the school had a gun. You heard about these kinds of things happening on the news, but Elena had never thought it would actually happen to her in real life. She wasn't paying attention, which is why she stumbled when Damon led her down a hallway and then abruptly stopped.

When Elena looked up, she was facing the barrel of a gun.


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey guys!**

 **Thank you for all the support on the last chapter :) I'm glad you all understood why it took me so long to put it up. Hopefully I'll be back to a regular uploading schedule now! Now, as always, my reviews!**

Imarifirst: Thank you for your kind review and suggestions!

Guest: _"_ _Awesome chapter! I'm excited to read what will happen next! Keep up the good work! Xoxo"_ Thank you so much! Xoxo to you too haha

Livetoreadlovetoread: Thank you for the super sweet review! I'm glad that you like my depictions of the main characters :)

Guest (Ariana Petrova): _"_ _Great chapter, Katia, I really enjoyed it :) Can't wait for the next update!"_ Thank you!

meigs37: Thank you! Damon's sass is literally some of my favorite lines to write haha

LinaBug: Thank you!

Guest (Ella): _"_ _Woo! So glad you uploaded. I hope the next one comes soon, I can't wait!"_ I hope this was soon enough!

Undaunted One: Haha, thank you so much! I'm so glad that you're enjoying yourself!

Guest (Margie): _"_ _Nice thanks"_ Anytime haha

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or its characters. The plot is the only thing that's mine.**

 **Please Review! They mean the world to me :)**

 **~Katia**

* * *

They say that before you die, your entire life flashes before your eyes. That, when staring death in the face, you get to see every small or unimportant thing mixed in with the big moments. Staring death in the face herself, Elena realized that simply wasn't true. She didn't once think about the time when she was 12 years old, and she snuck cigarettes into her room with Caroline. She didn't think about how her mom smelled when she came home from a long day at work. No. Elena Gilbert didn't see her entire life flash before her eyes. She saw her entire future, the one she'd never be able to have.

Senior Prom, Graduation, completing The List. All those things were no longer on her horizon now. Elena saw her walking down the aisle in a white dress, her father by her side. And while Elena may not have been able to picture who was waiting for her at the end of the aisle, Elena knew that she was happy.

Next, Elena saw herself in a hospital bed, holding a small infant in her arms. She'd named her Miranda, after her mother. Then, Miranda was five, and Elena was holding a baby she'd decided to name Jeremy, after some TV show she saw once. Before she knew it, Miranda was graduating college, and Jeremy was at Prom. They were starting their own cycle of happy endings and beginnings.

A lot of things flashed to Elena Gilbert's head of what she'd miss out on as she stared death in the face. A lot of once-expectations that were now no more than dreams she'd never reach. So, no, your entire life doesn't flash before your eyes. Not even just the important moments. Before you die, you see what could have been. Elena couldn't help but wonder if that was somehow worse.

"Elena, get behind me," Damon said carefully, pulling Elena out of her thoughts, and back to the barrel of the gun in front of her. Holding it, stood a woman with dark hair. Elena didn't recognize her, but something stood out. She couldn't remember what that was, however. "Elena. Get behind me."

His voice was harsher this time, perhaps because Elena hadn't listened the first time. Silently, she moved to stand behind Damon, her eyes never leaving the woman with the gun. This was it. No wonder her dad made her have a body guard.

"How sweet of your boyfriend, Ms. Gilbert," the woman said, her voice like silk, and Elena took in a shaky breath. "But I'm afraid you're both going to die now."

"Yeah, I don't think that's the case," Damon said, before his right arm lashed out and grabbed a hold of the woman's arm, wrenching it to turn her hand upwards. A shot rang out, but it hit the ceiling, making some of the ceiling fall. Damon wrenched the woman's arm again, this time making her drop the gun. Another shot rang out, farther away this time, and not from the woman's gun. She wasn't alone it seemed.

Damon must have heard it too, because he wasted no time in smacking the woman's head into the wall, rendering her unconscious, and grabbing Elena's arm, heaving her outside. Elena turned her head to look at the woman as she walked away. She didn't know why she thought she looked so familiar before. Seeing her now, lying like that on the floor, she didn't know the woman. Her head whipped back to Damon just as they busted out of the school.

"Truck. Now." Damon said, giving her a look. Elena gulped softly, nodding some. Damon let go of her arm, and Elena started to take off for the truck, but she stopped, turning around.

"Damon," she called out, and Damon stopped to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "Caroline and Katherine are in there. Please save them," she said, her eyes pleading and begging with him. Damon nodded some, clearing his throat.

Elena didn't wait around for him to tell her to get to the truck again. This time, she took off on her own account. Racing for the truck, she fumbled for the keys Damon had managed to shove into her hands. Swinging herself into the driver's side, she started the engine, looking around. She saw Damon going back into the school, and she felt her heart pang a bit. For the first time since meeting him, Elena realized how much she needed Damon in her life. She really couldn't have made it out of there without him. And if he died because of her? Elena didn't know what that would do to her.

She floored the truck, speeding over to the other side of the parking lot, screeching to a stop as she looked down at Damon. "Get in," she said to him, and he shook his head. "Damon. Get in. You're not going to do either one of us a favor if you die."

"What about your friends?"

"I have an idea for that. Just…get in the car, damnit." Elena said, and finally he listened. Once he was in the car, she turned to him. "Where's the other gunman? Do you know?"

Damon nodded, pointing somewhere.

"Anyone else with him? Students, teachers?"

"Not that I saw. He was trying to reload the gun or something," Damon explained.

Elena nodded a bit, before turning the wheel as hard as she could. Once more, she floored the gas. "Hold on!" She called out, going full force towards where Damon pointed.

Damon's eyes opened wide, and he gripped the emergency brake, stopping the car. "Are you fucking insane?" He asked, looking at her. "We are not driving full force into a brick building, Elena!"

Elena looked at him, frowning some. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, though now that she was thinking over it, she couldn't really remember why it had sounded like such a good idea. She opened her mouth to defend herself, but the look Damon gave her suggested it probably wasn't the best idea for her to do so. So, Elena didn't waste her breath in making sure that she said the right things, or that she defended herself. "So what's your plan, Damon? Getting killed?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"I was actually going to make an announcement that you had safely left the building. Those gunmans? They're here for you, Elena. That's why she knew your name. If they thought you'd left, they'd leave the kids alone."

Elena stared at him for a moment, nodding some. "Okay. That's…better than my idea. Go do it." She said, raising an eyebrow. "Quickly. I'm waiting for you."

"Elena, no," he said quickly, but she cut him off.

"Damon, I'm not letting you die, while I drive away in your truck. Go make the announcement and hurry back. I'm not leaving this campus without you."

He stared at her for a moment, before clearing his throat. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't, instead opting to get out of the car and go. Elena couldn't just sit still however, so she drove the truck around the parking lot a couple of times, before stopping up by the front just as Damon, Caroline, and Katherine came running out of the school. Once they were in the truck, Elena peeled out of the parking lot, heading for her house. It was a good five minutes before anyone spoke.

"Is everyone okay?" Damon asked, twisting in the passenger seat to look back at Caroline and Katherine, who both looked completely dazed at what had happened.

"I think so," Caroline said softly, and Elena looked up to meet her gaze in the mirror. The blonde was gnawing on her bottom lip, and Elena could tell that she was upset. She had every right to be too. The day's events were honestly the most traumatic thing Elena had had to go through in her life. She had spent so long telling her dad that nothing bad would ever happen to her, she'd begun to believe it herself. But after today, she couldn't keep pretending that was the case, because it wasn't. Bad things did happen to good people, and if Elena wasn't prepared, her entire life was going to crash down before she even realized it.

Katherine leaned against the back of the seat, pushing out a soft breath. "I can't believe that just happened. I mean, you read about these kinds of things in the news, and you think 'oh, that will never happen to me.' But you're wrong." Katherine mumbled. Elena had never heard Katherine make such a statement before, so it was obvious that she was still pretty shaken over everything that had just happened.

Finally, Elena pulled into the driveway at her house, stopping the car and turning back to face the two of them, her lips pursed slightly. "I'm so sorry you guys," she said, and they both shook her head.

"This isn't your fault," they said quickly, and at the same time. Elena didn't believe them though, so she changed the subject, turning her attention to Damon.

"Thank you so much," she said sincerely, her hand covering his, where it was set on the console between the two front seats. "You saved my life."

"I told you that's my job, Elena. Keeping you safe is the ultimate goal," he said softly.

The two were quiet for a moment, just staring at one another. Elena didn't want to break this moment—whatever it was—and Damon either didn't know what was going on or felt the same way. Either way, it was Katherine who finally spoke up.

"Your dad's home," she said, and Elena knew that this mean she was going to have a lot to talk about.

* * *

Greyson had gone straight to his office, not even speaking to Elena when he walked in, with the exception of a quick hug. Elena wondered if he even knew what happened, but it seemed he did, from the angry phone calls she could hear on his end. She spent the afternoon up in her room, watching movies with Caroline and Katherine, Damon in his room doing something else. It was the kind of relaxation she needed.

It wasn't until about eight o'clock, that Greyson came upstairs. Pausing the movie, they all sat up.

"Girls, I know today has been very traumatic for you. I think you guys should get home," he said to Caroline and Katherine. "Damon is going to take you home in the truck to ensure your total safety. He's downstairs waiting."

The two nodded, all standing up. Elena hugged them both, muttering another 'I'm sorry' before watching them walk down the stairs.

Elena turned back to her dad, who finally showed the concern she expected when she got home. He hugged her. Stunned, Elena hugged him back a bit before pulling away to look at him, biting her bottom lip. "I'm sorry I ever argued about Damon being with me all the time. He saved my life today. I was wrong about him," Elena admitted.

Greyson shook his head at her. "I didn't come up here to hear you talk like that. I wanted to make sure you're alright. To make sure you didn't get hurt or need therapy or anything like that," he said, reaching out to grab her hand. Elena couldn't help but smile at him, squeezing his hand when he grabbed it.

"I'm okay. I don't think I need therapy, but I guess we'll see," Elena said, smiling softly at him and running a hand through her hair. "I'm exhausted. I think I'm going to turn in early tonight, if that's okay?"

"Of course," Greyson said, letting go of her hand. "Holler if you need anything."

"I will."

Greyson left her room, and Elena quickly got ready for bed.

And, for the first time since she got ushered out of the lunch room that day, Elena sobbed as she buried herself into her covers and prayed it had never happened.


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone! I know I suck with timely updates, but I honestly had no inspiration for this story until earlier this week when it hit me. I'm in such a writing mood, so hopefully the next chapter will see you in about three-four days, but at most next week!**

 **That being said, I DO plan on starting another TVD story here soon, so I have a poll up on my profile for you guys to vote in to tell me what you guys would like to see. I do plan on doing all of those stories eventually, but I just want to focus on two stories at a time, since I do work and write my own, personal novels as well. Let me know.**

 **Now, for the reviews!**

Guest: _"_ _Short chapter compared to the previous ones but great chapter nonetheless! Good job! Can't wait for the next one!"_ It was shorter because so much happened in it! Don't worry, though, longer ones up ahead!

Imarifirst: The point of living in small town Mystic Falls instead of D.C. and just now giving Elena a bodyguard was because the family doesn't have security. And, the way I think of it, Damon probably offered to take the girls home. Greyson probably would have himself if Damon didn't want to. The hit squad will be addressed in the next chapter, once classes resume, as will the entire issue with what happened.

Livetoreadlovetoread: I hope this chapter delved into that some for you! I'm so glad you're enjoying the story!

Undaunted One: Awh! You're review meant so much to me! I usually aim for one a week, but I lost motivation for the story in the last month, and have only recently found it. Hopefully a regular updating schedule will take place, but I am not going to promise anything :)

 **Special shoutout to Charmedbycharmed who gave me the inspiration for the next plot movement! Thank you so much! :)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or its characters. Only the plot is mine.**

 _ **SUPER IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CAROLINE AND ELENA ABOUT ADOPTION IN THIS CHAPTER ARE NOT MY OWN. THEY ARE SIMPLY THE VIEWS OF THE CHARACTERS, NOT MY OWN PERSONAL OPINIONS. HATE COMMENTS WILL BE IGNORED. THANK YOU!**_

 **Please Review!**

 **Katia.**

* * *

When Elena woke up that morning, it wasn't to the blaring sounds of her alarm clock, or the insistent knocking of Damon's fist on her door telling her she'd overslept, but to several golden strands of sunlight drifting in through her window. She never woke up before her alarm, so that immediately put her off, as she shot up in her bed and grabbed her phone to check the time. Upon looking at it, she realized that it was three hours later than she had meant to get up, school had already started, and that she was late for one of the first times in her academic life.

Pushing herself out of her bed in a hurry, she ran towards the bathroom she shared with Damon, going through and pounding on his door hard. "Damon! I woke up late, so you need to get up. I have to get to school!" She shouted, before turning on the faucet and beginning to furiously brush her teeth before moving into her room once more to open her closet. She was freaking out bad, because after the super stressful day yesterday, she couldn't believe she'd slept in so late. It was so unlike her.

Once she got an outfit laid out, she went to spit and rinse from brushing her teeth. Having heard absolutely zero movement from the other side of the door, she pounded again. "Damon! I'm serious! Get up!" she screeched, but ran a hand through her hair before going to change. Once that was done, she went down stairs in a hurry. She turned the corner by the foot of the stares and tumbled into something. No, not something—someone. It was a chest— _naked_ chest, if she were specific—and connected to it was black boxers, a bowl of cereal, and Damon's face. She met his eyes after probably staring way too long at Damon's abs. She cleared her throat some, looking up at him, her eyes wide. "I'm..I'm, uh, late for school." She mumbled, feeling heat flood her cheeks.

"School got cancelled today, Elena. Due to everything that happened yesterday, they asked the students to take today off and just calm down. You especially, given you were at the heart of the entire attack," Damon pointed out to her. "So, when your dad called to tell me, I figured I'd let you sleep in, so I turned off your alarm clock for you. I hope that was okay. I figured you needed the rest."  
Elena was silent at first before nodding some. "Yeah, yeah. That's totally fine. Thank you," she said, her eyes drifting down to his naked chest once more before zapping back up to his face. She couldn't allow herself to stare at his chest. It wasn't something that could happen. She _hated_ Damon.

Although, did she? Really hate him? After seeing him actually doing his job yesterday, Elena found herself thinking a lot more of Damon and the reason he was here, as stupid as that sounded. Now, granted, Damon still annoyed Elena the majority of the time, and she still didn't want a bodyguard, but Elena finally was starting to understand why it was that she needed one.

Damon narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you okay? You're acting really strange," Damon said carefully, pressing his lips together, and taking a step closer to her, in which Elena promptly took a step away. "I'm fine, thank you." She said, before darting around him and running off in the direction of the kitchen. She half-expected Damon to follow after her, wondering why she was acting so strange, but he didn't. Elena couldn't tell if she was happy or upset about that, either. It was weird, feeling as though she might start to miss Damon if he wasn't around. And, here's the thing, Elena wasn't an idiot. She wrote about teenage angst like this all the time, so she knew the warning signs. But, she refused to acknowledge that she was having those feelings about Damon Salvatore. No way. There wasn't a chance in hell.

* * *

Caroline didn't even knock that day, since Damon had been outside getting the mail when she pulled into the driveway. So, she let herself into the house, before going up to her best friend's bedroom to see how she was handling everything that had happened to her the day before. Caroline couldn't imagine being in the same kind of position that Elena was in right now, knowing that the school got attacked because the attackers wanted to get their hands on Elena Gilbert.

"Elena?" Caroline called out, knocking three times on her bedroom door before opening it and sticking her head in. Elena was sitting at her desk, writing. "Hey," she said, going to sit down on the bed.

Elena perked up at seeing her best friend, standing up and moving over to her bed as well so that she could sit next to Caroline. "How are you doing?" She asked.

"How am _I_ doing?" Caroline shook her head, pulling Elena into a hug, which Elena's eyes widened slightly at. "Don't even worry about me. It's you I'm worried about. How are you?"

Elena knew that Caroline was referencing how she was in terms of yesterday's events, but Elena didn't feel like talking about that with Caroline, so she switched focus onto something else that was bothering Elena greatly—Damon and the way Elena was starting to feel about him. "There's a small chance that I'm starting to be able to tolerate Damon," Elena said. Because, let's face it, the girl couldn't even admit to herself that she was starting to fall for Damon. How on earth would she be able to admit it to Caroline?

"I knew you would," Caroline said, "I mean, he's really not that bad. Now, I'm not like Kath, who wants to screw him, but I was actually listening to some of his stories the other night, and he's not a bad guy. I figured you'd start finding him funny or whatever."

"Well, mission accomplished. As it turns out, I think he's not bad. I mean, I'm still irritated that my dad is making me get a bodyguard, but I don't think I would be alive today if he weren't around yesterday to save me, so there's that, you know?"

Caroline nodded, and it made Elena feel better. She knew it sounded cliché, but she really did feel better about whatever terrible situation she was in if she got the chance to talk to her best friend about it. It sounded so stereotypical and like a bad middle-school movie, but it was true. Sometimes the best therapy was sitting on your bed talking about boys.

"How's Katherine? You saw her when she went home yesterday," Elena asked, moving to lean up against the headboard, plugging in her phone so that she really wouldn't sleep through school tomorrow. That wasn't something she entirely wanted.

Caroline shrugged a bit, rolling onto her back and looking up at the ceiling instead of directly at Elena. "She's being super dramatic. Talking about how close it all was, and how Damon really saved her life. Don't get me wrong, yesterday was terrifying, but Katherine and I didn't even deal with looking at an attacker. We just grabbed our bags, found Damon, and got out of there. She's acting like someone held a gun to her head." Caroline said, shaking her head.

"She's always been like that, though," Elena pointed out, moving over some so she could start braiding Caroline's hair slightly as they talked. "I can't really put her down for that. I think it's a mechanism for being adopted, you know?" Elena said.

They didn't talk about it often, but Katherine really was adopted. When she was a baby, her mother left her on the doorstep of a church. The pastor put her into the system, and two weeks later, Katherine's parents found her and took her home. They've never tried to hide that from Katherine, but Elena sometimes wished that they would. Knowing that her mom didn't want her so much that she left her abandoned on the steps of a church? That had to mess with your head.

"I guess that's true. I'm glad that I don't have to deal with that kind of stuff in my life. I mean, granted, I do have to deal with a divorced family, and my dad has somehow turned into competition for me when I'm trying to score with a guy— _so_ creepy that my dad hits on guys our age, but whatever. That's not the point. The point is that I'm glad that's all I have to deal with, and that my parents didn't give me up. I think that could ruin someone."

Elena nodded in agreement, undoing one of the braids and starting over. "I just feel bad for her."

Caroline sighed, before sitting up, and changing the subject. Elena was grateful for that too, because it felt wrong—talking about Katherine like that behind her back. And it wasn't necessarily that the two girls were talking bad about her, but it still felt like a not-great move to analyze your best friend's life just because they were adopted. Elena wouldn't want Caroline and Katherine to do that about her if the situation was reversed.

"Do you want to go get some ice cream? I think we could convince Damon to let us out of the house, even if he has to come with us," Caroline pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

"That sounds great."

* * *

Ten minutes later, Damon, Caroline, and Elena were piling into his car to go to the tiny ice cream place down the street. Damon had yet to have their ice cream, which was unreasonable as he'd lived in Mystic Falls when he was younger and never gotten the actual chance to visit _Whitmore's Cream Parlor_. It was a small, hole-in-the-wall place, but it was part of the charm that was Mystic Falls. That, and the Mystic Grill, but they weren't trying to get a full meal.

"I still can't believe you drove past The Parlor every day for years, and never stopped to see how it was," Caroline said, shaking her head some, and leaning forward so that she could look between both Damon and Elena. "I mean, that's literally insane. If you live in Mystic Falls, you _have_ to go to The Parlor. It's, like, super mandatory, Mr. Salvatore. How haven't you done it?"

Damon turned his head slightly to look at Caroline, and Elena laughed when he rolled his eyes. "I told you, I just never thought about it. If I wanted ice cream, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a gallon to keep in the refrigerator. Why can't you let that go?" Damon turned to face Elena. "Why can't she let that go?"

Elena laughed, shrugging. "Caroline can't let anything go. She's weirdly good at holding grudges. I mean, ask her about The Ponytail Incident."

"Why would I—" Damon started to say, but the blonde bombshell in the backseat had already cut him off to start the story.

"The Ponytail Incident occurred the first week of first grade. The perpetrator: Jesse Daniels. I had just come in from recess, and I was happy. Because after recess meant that I would get to do some silent reading. Which, in my classroom, was code for laying down on the ground and not giving a shit about anything at all. But, of course, I mean that as first-grader-like as possible," Caroline said.

"Of course. So, you were just not giving a poopie about anything," Damon said, causing Elena to snort some.

"Exactly. You get me," Caroline teased, but continued on with her story. "Anyways, so I'm super excited for this silent reading time. All I have to do is go to the bathroom. So, I go back to that tiny little bathroom in the back room, and start, you know…"

"Making a poopie?" Damon asked, and Caroline groaned, reaching up and punching his shoulder.

" _No_ , just going to the bathroom, and this little boy walks into the bathroom, exposing my bathroom situation to everyone in the classroom. So, last year, I got my revenge."

" _Last year_?" Damon asked, turning to face Elena. "Is she serious about this?"

"Oh, super serious," Elena said, before making a shushing noise at him.

Caroline clapped her hands together. "I waited just long enough that Jesse would never see it coming, and all of junior year, I flirted and flirted with him so that he would ultimately just fall in love with me. Makes sense, right?"

"Sure," Damon said, nodding some.

"So, all year, I flirt, and sure enough, prom season rolls around, and he asks me to go with him. I'm talking, he put rose petals in my room, everything. And I said no."

Damon turned to face Elena, and Elena nodded. "It was bad. I was there, and thought it was super cute, but Caroline had other plans."

"I told him no, and when he asked why, I told him about first grade. He didn't even remember doing that, but he apologized. And I'm still mad at him for it. So, no, I can't just let go."

Damon sighed, pulling into a parking spot at the Parlor and turning back to face Caroline. "Okay, I still don't understand this though. Why is it called the Ponytail Incident?" he asked.

Caroline sighed, laughing, and nodding some. "I can't believe it! I forgot the very best part! So, right after he exposes me to the classroom, I was super embarrassed. I told Tyler Lockwood about it, and the kid cut off Jesse's ponytail."

"What does that have to do with your story?"

"It doesn't, but The Ponytail Incident sounds much cooler than The Bathroom Incident."

"Just get out and order some ice cream," Damon said with a laugh, standing up and walking over to the window.

* * *

Elena leaned across the table, watching him carefully as he picked up his spoon. He raised it, digging it into the creamy bliss of the mint chocolate chip ice cream. Caroline watched closely, eyes raised.

"You guys are making me very uncomfortable," Damon said, setting the spoon back down and causing both Caroline and Elena to groan, pulling back and pointing at him.

"You can't just put the spoon down!" Caroline sighed, standing up. "I'm going to order my own ice cream now. You, sir, have disappointed me immensely. And to think, I told you The Ponytail Incident." She muttered, before walking off to the window, leaving Elena and Damon alone on the picnic table.

"You can't call it that, Blondie! It had nothing to do with you!" Damon called out, before turning back to Elena. "She's insane."

"I've never claimed that she isn't," Elena said with a laugh, taking a sip of her milkshake and giving him a look. "So, are you going to eat the ice cream or not?" She asked with a laugh.

"You're being nice to me. What's that about?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at her. Elena shrugged a bit, biting down on her bottom lip. "I don't know. I guess something changed yesterday. I still don't like that Care and I can't go on an ice cream run by ourselves, but you did save my life yesterday. So, in return, every couple of days, I'll just be really nice to you."

"You are also insane, Elena." Damon said, but he smiled. Elena shrugged a bit, biting down on her bottom lip. "But, I guess I'll take what I can get."

"Eat the damn ice cream, Damon."

And he did. Elena watched his face for a reaction, and finally he showed one. "Wow."

"Right? Right? Isn't that the best ice cream you've ever had?"

Damon looked up at her, crossing his arms over his chest. "Elena, it's terrible."

"What? No, no. It is _not_ terrible, Damon," Elena said, making a face. "That is the best ice cream in Virginia."

"It tastes like feet."

"It does not taste like feet! I don't know why you would—" But Elena stopped when Caroline joined them with a rather upset Katherine. Elena immediately stood up, walking over and looking at Katherine. "Are you okay?" She asked softly, biting down on her bottom lip. She'd never seen Katherine look so upset, like her entire world had just crashed down.

"No, I'm not."

"What happened?" Elena asked, helping her sit down at the picnic table, looking up at Caroline who merely shook her head. She didn't know what was up with their friend either.

Katherine was silent for a moment, leaning against the table, not looking at anything in particular. She wouldn't even look at Damon, which was really weird, since she seemed to never be able to take her eyes off of him before this. "It was a normal day. I was downstairs in my room, working on some homework and watching the newest episode of Grey's Anatomy—"

Caroline cut her off with a squeal. "Oh my god! It was so good, wasn't it? I mean…" she trailed off when Elena flashed her a 'what the hell, Caroline' look. "Sorry, continue."

"Anyways," Katherine said, as if Caroline had never rudely interrupted her to begin with. "I'm just watching it, when my mom calls down to me to come upstairs. So, I do. I make my way upstairs, and there's this woman sitting at our table. And I want to ask who she is, but I refrain greatly. But then my mom says that this woman's name is Isobel Flemming, and she wanted to see me."

Elena narrowed her eyes slightly in confusion, watching Katherine. It was silent for a few moments, like Katherine needed the time to process everything. And, she probably did, because nobody was prepared for what she said after that.

"She's my birth mom, guys. My birth mom showed up at my door. And she says I have a sister"

Time seemed to stop.


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey!**

 **Look at that, an update in a reasonable amount of time? What a weird occurrence lol. For my reviews,**

Livetoreadlovetoread: Thank you for your review! I'm glad that you think my story has potential and that you don't find Caroline annoying. She's one of my favorite characters on the show, so I try to reflect that in my writing!

Guest: _"_ _Awesome chapter, can't wait to read what happens next! Thanks for updating!"_ Thank you so much :) I hope you enjoy!

meigs37: I hope you like this chapter!

Undaunted One: As expressed in the PM I sent you, thank you _so so_ much for your review! It meant so much to me when I first saw it! It was just so sweet! Thank you for the time invested in my story! I love you, Reader xx

twilightisourforever (CH 1): I hope you continued to enjoy the story!

Guest: _"_ _Pls don't let Katherine be elena sister"_ I don't tell any secrets to my story.

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own TVD, just the plot.**

 **Please review!**

 **Katia xx**

* * *

Everyone was quiet for a little bit, not knowing what to say to Katherine. It wasn't every day that your birth mother showed up at your door and told you that you had a sister. After nearly eighteen years of neglect and not wanting to be in your child's life, how is that the moment you want them to first remember about you?

"Do you want my ice cream?" Damon asked, finally breaking the silence, and being oddly sweet. He pushed the cup of ice cream he had ordered towards her. "I didn't like it anyways."

Elena flinched a bit, ready for Caroline to go off on him, but someone else did.

"You don't like their ice cream?" Katherine asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him, as though she couldn't comprehend the words he had just spoken. "That's…who doesn't like Whitmore's ice cream?"

Damon looked taken aback, like he hadn't expected Katherine to say something like that. Which, to be fair, he probably hadn't. He'd probably thought that because she was in such a vulnerable place. But everyone needed an outlet when they were upset. Right now, Katherine's outlet was getting upset that Damon didn't like her favorite ice cream shop. And, damn if he wasn't going to sit there and take it so that he didn't piss her off more.

"I mean, what is there not to like? What did the ice cream ever do to you? How could you not want to keep-" Katherine started, and then she stopped, and all at once, Caroline and Elena knew what was about to happen. They both grabbed napkins and laid a hand on the brunette's shoulder as she started to cry. "Why didn't she keep me?" Katherine whispered softly.

Katherine Pierce never got like this, so it was rare to see her so detached and upset. What did you say to comfort the girl who was seemingly always fine? It wasn't like you knew how to take care of someone if they never had a breakdown. It was that awkward first time learning this about someone. Only, it was made worse because both Caroline and Elena felt like they should know how to make Katherine feel better. Only, they couldn't figure it out.

So, they sat in silence, letting Katherine cry. Sitting there on that park bench, with a melting cup of Whitmore's ice cream on the middle of the table, staring at the empty lot seemed to be okay for Katherine. She didn't care that Damon was sitting awkwardly nearby, unsure of what to do in the situation. She didn't care that Caroline and Elena couldn't find the words to make this okay.

Because, maybe, the sad truth was that you couldn't find the words to make things okay sometimes. Sometimes, things had to be broken. Not everyone is a repairman, and not all toys get fixed. It's the sad truth, but it's a truth that we all have to man up and live with.

* * *

An hour of tears and silence later, they all piled into cars. Caroline offered to drive Katherine home, and Elena stuck with Damon, back to her house. It had been a long night, and none of them really knew what to say. Elena was tired, and she just wanted to go to bed, but she knew better. She knew that her best friend really needed her today. So, when she got home, she'd call Katherine and make sure that everything was okay for her. She'd also make a note to talk to her dad, see what he could do about finding the sister. Anything that could make Elena feel as though she were helping, even if she really wasn't.

"Sorry tonight ended up being so sad," Elena finally said, glancing over at Damon as he was driving. The moon had risen while they'd been sitting at the picnic table, and the moonlight was highlighting the curve of Damon's features. If Elena hadn't already spoken, she's not sure she would have been able to. It seemed that with every passing minute she spent with Damon, she was starting to warm up to him even more. He was intoxicating, but in the very best way. Elena still didn't want to accept the thoughts she was having about Damon, but they were there. NO matter how much she repressed them, they were there.

Damon shrugged a bit, not looking over at her, which gave Elena the moment or so longer to watch him, before readjusting her eyes to the road stretched out in front of them. "It's alright. You can't help it. I just feel bad for her, you know?" Damon said, taking a left turn. Elena did know what he meant. She and Caroline had just been talking about Katherine's being adopted earlier that day. And Elena couldn't help but feel guilty that maybe the two of them had jinxed something.

"I can't imagine a bomb like that being dropped on me," Elena said, shaking her head a bit as they pulled into her driveway. She bit on her lip a bit. "I mean, not only does Katherine meet her birth mother, but then she figures out she has a sister. It's ridiculous. What kind of person drops in to shock the hell out of you?"

Damon shook his head, getting out of the car and Elena followed suit, grabbing her purse from the floor. He looked like he was about to say something more on the matter, when he grabbed her by the waist, pulling her in close. She yelped a bit, her hands coming up to his chest and resting there for a moment. She looked up at him, about to ask him why he was doing this, when the next thing she knew, his lips were on her lips.

She'd forgotten how much she enjoyed the last kiss, and her body immediately reacted to this one. She melted a bit, one of the hands on his chest clenching at his shirt, almost to pull him closer. A voice in the back of her mind reminded her that she had no idea why he'd kissed her, but the majority of her body didn't really seem to care. It was like those ten seconds were on a completely different planet, and rules didn't apply to the two of them. His fingertips were like tiny electric shocks against her waist, but she didn't want him to remove them from her hips.

Finally, whether it was because Damon wanted to stop kissing her or he needed air, he pulled away from her, resting his forehead on her own, just staring as he looked at her. Elena didn't know what to say, though a million thoughts were running through her own mind.

 _What the hell, Damon?_

 _Kiss me again._

 _Why did I like that so much?_

 _Why do you irritate me so much?_

 _You can't just keep kissing me!_

Before she could ask, Damon leaned into her ear, and for a moment, Elena thought he was going to bit her earlobe, or whisper something dirty in her ear. And, she supposed, he _did_ whisper in her ear. Just not quite what she had hoped for. "Rebekah's car is parked in your neighbor's driveway, so I thought I'd give her a show," Damon said, before pulling away, intertwining their fingers and pulling her to the front door. Elena followed, suddenly tense from the fact that Rebekah was nearby. Once they were inside, Damon dropped her hand, walking over the window to peer out of it. Elena didn't try to follow suit, figuring he was better at hiding than she was. "Why is she here?" She asked.

"I assume to see that we're really dating," Damon said with a soft shrug, turning away from the window and looking back at her. "But I'm not taking any chances with your life, so let's get you upstairs and get ready for bed. School isn't cancelled tomorrow, after all," he said, making a face at her, and raising an eyebrow.

There was the Damon that Elena remembered. Bossing her around, making faces at her. Pretty soon, she was sure she could expect a sarcastic comment from his lips. Nevertheless, she trudged upstairs, ignoring the tingling on her lips.

* * *

Elena's alarm went off way to early the next morning, and she grumbled as she rolled out of bed and hit the off button. She had to admit that she was scared to be going back to school for many reasons. What if the hit squad came at her again? What if the students all hated her because of what she brought to the school? Elena was very nervous as she started getting ready for classes that morning, hoping that she would eventually get the chance to calm down and get some real work done.

Getting ready for school that morning was a challenge, but somehow Elena managed to push through and get it all done. She wasn't even late, like she thought she might be, managing to get down to the living room before Damon. In fact, she was five minutes earlier than Damon, who came down as Elena was shoveling the last spoonful of cereal into her mouth. She knew that she could eat cereal quick, which was why it was her go to breakfast food. As she rinsed out her bowl, she looked back at him. "So, what's the situation on the hit squad? I can't believe I didn't ask about that yesterday."

Damon frowned a bit, and already Elena could tell that she wasn't going to end up liking the answer. "They got away," he said softly, and Elena was right. She cursed softly, shaking her head some. "We aren't going to be as lax with security at your school though. I'm going to start actually going with you to every class, along with some other security I recommended to be watching the halls. We're doing everything we can to prevent another incident like the one that happened the other day."

Elena nodded some, grabbing her messenger bag off the floor and following him out to his car. She got in, frowning a bit at the thought of that hit squad still being out there. It made her uneasy to know that they could come after her if they wanted to again. Even with the added security detail, nobody could guarantee her that she would be totally safe. It wasn't so much her that she cared about either. It was the other students at her school.

Maybe Elena should be worried more about herself, but she wasn't. She knew that Damon's top priority was going to be her, and he wasn't going to let anything happen to her if he could help it. However, because all of his focus was going to be on Elena, she knew that the other kids in her school—kids like Caroline, Katherine, and Tyler Lockwood—were going to be left stranded with nowhere to go. Elena didn't want that happening to anyone, but especially not her friends. No one should be favored in a situation like that. It just wasn't fair.

The ride to school wasn't quiet, but Elena also never spoke a word. Instead, Damon played old rock music with the volume up to high and the windows down. Elena wondered briefly if this was Damon's ways of preparing himself for the day that was ahead. She had to assume that it was—why else would he be bobbing his head like that?

Finally getting to school, Elena started to make a beeline for her locker, not really wanting to talk to anyone about what had happened earlier that week. She just wanted to get through the day with as little conversations about the incident as possible. However, it became clear that wasn't possible when she opened her locker. A little note fell from it, and when Elena leaned down to grab it, she realized it was a note saying she needed to get to the principal's office upon arrival to school that day. Frowning, she handed the note to Damon and walked off in that area. Once there, she sat quietly, listening to the principal talk about how sorry he was it was easy for the hit squad. This was it. She couldn't believe it! All he wanted to do was apologized. For a second there, Elena had expected the worst. She was starting to relax, when the principal muttered words that made the blood inside of her veins run cold as ice.

"We are asking that you pack up your things, and continue with homeschool this year, Ms. Gilbert. To avoid any further mishaps, we are taking you out of our school."


	10. Author's Note

**Hey guys!**

So, I want to apologize for my prolonged absence from writing. Real life just got hectic and then I lost motivation to write. However, I've finally gotten my inspiration back! Yay!

That being said, I would love to return to this story. I enjoy telling it and have a lot of ideas for the story. But, when I read through it the other day so I could write the next chapter, I saw so many plot holes that I couldn't even imagine how no one pointed them out before.

So, my question for you guys is, would you like me to continue this story, or rewrite it to fix plot holes? I want to do what you guys want, and I can do either one. Just leave me a review and let me know!

Im so excited to be back, and I love you guys so much.

 **Katia**


	11. Chapter 9

**Hey guys!**

 **This is the much awaited and much requested update on The Bodyguard! I'm sorry this took so long, and I explain that all in the Author's Note before this. I'm hoping to get this thing going again, because now I have ideas. That's not to say that I won't take a bit to post a chapter, because it takes me a while to write them and get happy with them, but I will not be taking a break again, hopefully!**

 **I also have a Riverdale story up, if anyone is interested :)**

 **I'm not answering reviews this part, just because that's way too many. I will go back to that in the next chapter :)**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own TVD, just the plot!**

 **Please review! I love hearing from you guys!**

 **Katia xx**

* * *

Elena couldn't find the words to say to her principal at that moment. She tried to come up with something that would make her dad proud of her, but nothing was coming out. She felt like she was choking on air, and there was no way for her to stop. It was an avalanche of emotions, and all Elena wanted to do was go to her AP classes. What the hell was happening? Could the school really do this to her?

Then again, upon further reflection, Elena realized that they could. She couldn't blame them for wanting her gone. She'd brought a school shooting upon them, and she felt terrible for that. There wasn't anything that she could do, of course, but that didn't mean that she didn't feel just as bad about it. Who would want her in their school after she'd brought that kind of threat upon the other members of the school? Elena couldn't blame her principal at all. She didn't deserve to continue her studies here, and she knew it. So, where she originally wanted to throw her hands up in protest, she kept her cool.

"I understand," she finally said, gripping the edge of her seat, her knuckles turning white when she did so. She looked up at him, pushing out a breath. It was hard to keep calm during this, especially since they'd made Damon stay outside. She had no doubt he was ready to pounce if she screamed, but still. Him being here would have made her more feisty. And she couldn't tell if she was mad that she wasn't, or glad she could stay level-headed. "I'll...pack my locker up and leave right away."

She stood up, shaky legs, and nodded at her principal, who didn't say anything else to her. She almost expected him to stop her and apologize. She wanted him to change his mind, let her stay. But, against all terrible feelings she had about it, she understood why he didn't. So, she opened the door, walking out of the principal's office. She was doing everything she could to keep her face from betraying her emotions. She must not have been doing a good job, however, because Damon stopped her the minute he saw her. "What's wrong?"

Elena shook her head, as she didn't want to talk about it right now. She didn't want anyone else to hear what had happened. She'd tell Caroline and Katherine later, but she didn't want to think about it right now. So, she'd just push past Damon, knowing that he'd follow her. And he did, straight to her locker. She had to give him credit of understanding she didn't want to talk about it. He didn't ask her any questions when she started packing up her locker. She got a few looks from other students, but no one stopped her. No one had the guts to talk to the girl who'd brought a shooter to the school. And she couldn't blame them. She couldn't blame anyone other than herself.

Once she was all packed up, she booked it outside to Damon's truck. Damon followed her, staying silent the entire time. Elena could feel his concerned gaze burning into the back of her head, and she knew he was going to ask her a million questions the minute that their car was out of the parking lot. "Don't argue with me today," she said, turning and giving him a look. And, for the first time since she met Damon Salvatore, she walked over to the driver's side of her car and got in.

Damon stared at her for a moment, but when she turned the car on and clicked her seatbelt into place, he must have gotten the notion that she wasn't kidding. So, he got into the passenger seat, and watched her carefully. "Your dad mentioned that you don't drive often," Damon said, cautiously.

Elena started pulling out of the parking spot, before glancing over at him. "I don't."

And then she whipped that car out of the school's parking lot, making the tires squeal so loud that you could hear them in the principal's office.

* * *

"Elena, I know that you're going through some kind of crisis or whatever, but you are going 80 in a 35 zone. We are going to die," Damon said to her, and he genuinely looked fearful.

"Relax, we aren't going to die."

"I shouldn't have let you get in the driver's seat," Damon mumbled, and Elena grinned a bit, still breezing past the very few stop signs there were in this neighborhood. She knew that she was being reckless, and that she could care about this sort of thing, but she wasn't able to. She couldn't find it in her to stop the car, until she was safely home. Elena was taking out her frustration from the last couple of days on the drive home. And, no, that wasn't safe. But something was clouding Elena's judgement that made her not care about safety or the law.

Damon didn't say anything else until they got home, which Elena thought was impressive. Then again, he had been holding on very tightly to the handle on the top of the car. So much so that if Elena had taken her eyes off of the road, she would have seen his knuckles turn white, she was sure of it. But, she didn't want to give Damon any more fuel to his fire over her driving, so she'd kept her brown eyes on the road, until she put the car in park in front of her house.

Elena unbuckled her seatbelt, grabbing her book bag and getting out of the car. She just wanted to get upstairs to her room as fast as she could, without worrying about getting caught by her dad. She didn't want to explain to him why she wasn't at school at 9:14 AM on a weekday. She didn't want to explain to him how his running for vice president had made her have to give up a social life, and everything she'd hoped to do her senior year of high school

She didn't want to explain that she wished he wouldn't run for vice president-that he'd drop out, so that she could go back to living a normal life.

She was almost in the house, before Damon grabbed her arm, pulling her to face him. "What happened in that principal's office to make you want to do this?" Damon asked her, looking down at her. Elena hitched a soft breath when she noticed just how blue his eyes were. She'd never noticed that before, never paid enough attention because he'd always been increasingly annoying. Damon raised an eyebrow as he looked at her, waiting for an answer, and Elena realized that she had been staring.

"I got kicked out of school because I put the other students at risk," Elena said simply, gulping softly as she looked up at him, shaking her head for a quick moment. "I got kicked out of school, and was asked to finish my senior year of high school online, because a shooter came to the school for me, and endangered every other student."

Damon didn't say anything, instead just pulling Elena into a hug, as he noticed that there were tears pouring down her cheeks. It was like admitting what had happened had made it more real, and Elena couldn't deal with it. Once she said it out loud, it seemed less likely that she'd wake up and this whole entire thing would be over.

But this wasn't a dream, and she wasn't waking up.

* * *

The rest of the day had been fairly uneventful. Damon had let Elena head upstairs so that she could mope around in her bedroom. She hadn't even picked up her laptop to work on her story, which was really rare for her. Instead, she just crawled into bed and laid there all day, just wishing that this wasn't happening, all while knowing that it really was.

It was currently 7:00 and Elena had yet to come out of her bedroom since they got home. She went to the bathroom once, but even that had an adjoining door, so she'd barely left her own room. She'd just been in a bad mood. Most kids would be ecstatic to find out that they weren't having to go to school anymore, but it just bummed Elena out. Elena had liked school. She was looking forward to her classes this semester. And now how was she ever supposed to finish The List?

That felt like so long ago, now. The last few days had been so full of drama, that Elena found herself wishing that she could just go back to the way things were, before her dad had run for vice president. She missed cutting up after school with Caroline and Katherine. She missed having fun in general. It seemed like her life was missing a lot of that lately. She couldn't even think of a time everything was okay, without going back at least a month.

"Elena?" her dad said, as she heard his fingers on the door. She didn't say anything, but then he repeated it, and she figured that she should probably let him in. Figure out what it was that he wanted.

"Come in," she said softly, moving to sit up in her bed. Greyson entered her bedroom, sitting down at the foot of her bed and putting a hand on her leg. "Hey," he said softly, squeezing her leg softly.

Elena didn't know what to say to him, because there wasn't anything nice she could think of. She wanted so badly to take all of her feelings out on him, to make him feel bad for making this all happen. It never occurred to her that Greyson might be feeling those things on his own. He didn't need her help to feel sorry for the way his career was affecting his daughter's life.

"I'm so sorry, El," He said, and Elena looked up to meet his eyes, not saying anything. He took this as a sign to continue, just looking at his daughter. "If I had known what this would have done to our family, I wouldn't have done it."

Elena sighed a bit, figuring that she couldn't ignore her father forever, as much as she'd like to. "Don't be sorry. You didn't hire a shooter to come kill me. You didn't ask to get me kicked out of school. You're just...doing your job. It just sucks that it's affecting me so much. I hate it," Elena muttered, leaning against her headboard and picking at a spot in her comforter where there was thread starting to come loose.

Greyson sighed, looking like he had no idea how to respond to that. And maybe he didn't. But, either way, just sitting there with his daughter was comfort enough to her. Of course, he was a politician, so shutting up wasn't in his strong suit. "I know you hate it, El. But we are going to do great things in this country, if I win. And I have to try. This is my dream, and I don't want to give up on it."

"I'm not asking you to give up on it, Dad. I'm just wishing I could…be somewhere else. I don't know. Away from Washington." Elena admitted, biting down on her bottom lip as she looked over at him. She didn't know what else to say, just that she wanted him to understand her. Her life had been turned upside down because of his campaign. And while she didn't wish that he wasn't running, she did wish that she wasn't in the heart of the trials and tribulations. That's what made the entire situation suck.

"I hear you, Elena. And I'm sorry."

And that was the end of it. Elena knew that nothing was going to change, but at least her dad was acknowledging her feelings.

* * *

The next day, after school hours, Caroline and Katherine stopped by. The whole school was talking about Elena's absence from classes, wondering where she'd gone after the events of the previous couple of days. Caroline and Katherine, who hadn't received any texts from Elena, came over to talk to her, simply wanting to know what was going on with their best friend. Why she'd gotten so...distant. Where had she gone, and why wasn't she at school?

But, Elena hadn't wanted to talk to her best friends, so when her dad called her to let them know they were there, she pretended to be asleep. She didn't want to explain why she wasn't at school. She didn't want to explain why she'd barely left her bed in two days. She just needed time to deal with this, time to deal with everything that was going on in her life right now. Maybe tomorrow she'd be fine. Or maybe next week, but not right now. Right now, Elena needed a moment to herself, just to breathe.

However, Damon hadn't gotten that memo, and he came to check on her anyways. She'd let him into her room, shaking her head when he opened his mouth. She didn't want to talk, but having someone else in the room would keep her from laying in bed and crying. So, she'd turned on a movie, crawled into her bed and patted the spot next to her.

The two of them stayed up until 3 in the morning, watching a new television show. They never spoke, just sitting in comfortable silence. And by the time they fell asleep, Elena's head was on Damon's chest.

It was the first night in a few months that Damon hadn't experienced a nightmare.


	12. Author's Note Going on Hiatus

**So, as I'm sure you've all noticed, my updates for this story keep getting spaced out, the chapters a little bit shorter, and just overall not very good.**

 **I was really happy with this story in the beginning and had a lot of ideas for it. However, I've simply lost my muse. I'm at the moment going to be putting it on hiatus. I want to sit down with it, read through it a couple of times and think through where I'm going with it.**

 **In the meantime, I am working on several other stories for Fanfiction. Fandoms include: The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Riverdale, Once Upon A Time, Star Wars, and The Mortal Instruments. I hope to see some of you for those stories once they're published.**

 **I will be back to this story eventually, I promise. I just can't give good content for the storyline right now. I'm sorry!**

 **I wish you all the best xx**

 **Katia**


	13. Author's Note (COMING BACK!)

**AS OF MAY 13, 2018, I WILL BEGIN RESUMING THIS STORY! IT WAS WILDLY ASKED FOR, AND SO I'VE BEEN REREADING IT AND WORKING SOME THINGS OUT!**

 **Pleas keep in mind that there will be a few plot holes I just won't be able to fix. I will try my hardest, but without completely rewriting some scenes, I can't do it!**

 **I can't wait to bring you guys the next installment of THE BODYGUARD!**

 **-Katia!**


	14. Chapter 10

**HEY WHAT'S UP HELLO!**

 **Thank you guys for being so patient with me through all the breaks I needed to take. BUT I finally have free time, and a good direction for the story, so I should be back to semi-regular updates :) I'm not putting myself on a schedule, but I'm definitely going to do my best!**

 **Please check out the full A/N at the end!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TVD, JUST THE PLOT!**

 **-Katia**

* * *

 _There was fire everywhere, and he couldn't see her. He couldn't find her. No matter how hard he tried. The smoke was starting to fill up in his lungs, and no matter how many times he tried to gasp for air, he couldn't get to it._

 _"Help!" he soft voice called out to him, and he wanted nothing more than to call back to her, wishing that he could help. But, the smoke was filling his respiratory system, and he couldn't bring himself to call out to her. It was so painful. Not the fact that he couldn't breathe; that somehow didn't hurt. But, knowing that she was out there, hurting, and he couldn't stop it…_

 _"Damon, please," he heard her whine, but he couldn't get there fast enough._

* * *

Damon shot up in the darkness that was his room, looking around as he tried to make sense of everything that he saw so far. He knew that it was a dream, but that didn't stop him from needing a minute to take everything in. After all, he had just witnessed a horrible nightmare.

It had been two days since the night he had fallen asleep in Elena's room. The one night in months that he hadn't woken up sweating, and calling out his ex-girlfriend's name. He sometimes thought about crawling into her bed, just to get them to go away again, but he knew that Elena just wouldn't understand that. At least, not right now. So, he settled for suffering in the silence of his bedroom.

Being alone with his thoughts wasn't much better than sleeping, if he were being completely honest. He kept replaying the same scene from his memory over and over again, unsure of what to do to make it stop. He didn't want to see her die anymore, yet he felt as though he was condemned to watch it over and over again for the rest of his life.

That event was nearly three years ago, just before he became a bodyguard. It was what had pushed him to be a bodyguard, if he were being completely honest. Seeing her so helpless...he wanted to make sure that something like that never happened to anyone again. At least, not on his watch. So, he undertook training session after training session to become a bodyguard. He was the top of his class. In doing so, he landed himself into Elena Gilbert's case.

He still couldn't tell if he enjoyed being assigned to Elena Gilbert. She was a handful, but he supposed she really was rather fun to be around. He just wasn't sure if that made up for how much of a brat she tended to be. Though, if he really thought about it, he supposed that anyone he was assigned to would be a diva. They all had to be rich enough to warrant protection that they could pay famously for. As the company's prices were, in no way, cheap.

With a grumble, Damon knew that it was time to get up. If he didn't, he would stay in bed all day. And if he stayed in bed all day, so would Elena. While she might not be allowed to go to school anymore, Damon wanted to make sure that she didn't spend her days sulking away in her bedroom. He agreed that it wasn't fair that she got kicked out of school, but he didn't want that one little facto to ruin her life.

He burst into her room after getting dressed. And, sure enough, there she was, wrapped up in all kind of blankets. She was in the dead center of her bed, which is why it was incredibly easy for him to jump and plop himself down onto the bed next to her.

Hard.

Elena was startle awake, looking up at him with a confused expression etched onto his face as she did so. Damon could here the sleep still on her voice when she spoke. "What are you doing in my room?"

"I can't let you sleep all day, so I had an idea," he said with a grin, turning onto his side as he looked at her, laughing the tiniest bit. Elena didn't think this was funny - that much was evident - but Damon did.

The brunette laying next to him put a pillow over her head. "I don't want to hear about your stupid idea."

Damon clicked his tongue at her. "Don't call it stupid. I mean, technically, you came up with it."

That seemed to get her attention, as Elena sat up, the pillow falling into her lap. She looked a bit skeptical as she stared down at him, and Damon grinned.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought we might cross something off of The List," he finally said with a soft smirk as he looked at her.

Elena looked skeptical, but that didn't make Damon's grin falter. "Most of the things on The List aren't...well, normal."

And, in that moment, Damon realized what she must have been thinking, and he couldn't help but laugh at her. "Oh, God, no. We aren't doing number eight, missy. I was thinking number five."

* * *

"Number Two: kiss someone of the same gender," Katherine murmured as she looked at some of the few things that she had yet to cross off of her list yet. She wasn't quite sure what she had left, as she had already done most of these things already. That's just who she was. After all, most of The List had been things she had done that Elena had wanted to do.

"You aren't seriously going to just kiss some random chick, are you?" Caroline asked from her spot perched on Katherine's window-seat. She had come over after school that day, since Elena still wasn't answering her phone. They were both kind of worried about her. Okay, maybe more than just 'kind of'. Elena wasn't ever like this, avoiding their phone calls.

Katherine had suggested that they call Damon, to make sure she was okay, but Caroline didn't think that was a great idea.

"Besides, we don't even have Damon's number," Caroline had said to her.

"You don't have Damon's number. I got it that very first night." Katherine had said triumphantly.

Still, they had decided to not call, so that they weren't barging in on Elena's privacy. So, instead, they opted for worrying together, while sitting in Katherine's bedroom and pondering over The List, and what things they could and couldn't do before the school year was over. Like kissing someone of the same gender. "I hadn't really thought that far ahead." Katherine finally mused, leaning back into her pillows some, and looking over at her blonde friend, raising an eyebrow. "Who are you kissing?"

Caroline snorted a bit, casting a look over to Katherine and shaking her head some. "I don't do the whole List thing. That's more you and Elena."

To which Katherine also snorted. "Oh, don't pretend you're so mighty. You've been just as concerned with crossing things off as me and Elena. So, who are you kissing?"

Caroline was silent for a few moments, and for once, Katherine thought that she had managed to shut the blonde up. It wasn't that Caroline was 'annoying' per say, but she did talk a lot. So the fact that she hadn't been able to automatically come up with a reply felt like a tiny victory to Katherine, if she was being completely honest with herself. Katherine liked Caroline, obviously, otherwise she wouldn't put up with her. But, she did tend to get on Katherine's nerve, as was expected from time to time. Besides, she was so boring.

"We could always just kiss each other."

Okay, so maybe she wasn't that boring after all.

* * *

The giggling had started about a half an hour ago.

"I really didn't think bodyguards were allowed to do this kind of thing," Elena's voice came of light and airy. Honestly, she hadn't realized smoking weed would make her feel so...relaxed. With every bad thing that had been happening lately, she really needed this feeling. It was like the weight of the world had been bearing down on her shoulders, and now it was lifted away, like it was nothing.

Damon chuckled. While he had smoked the same thing as Elena, they were on two very different levels at the moment. It had hit her harder than him, and he couldn't tell if that was because she had more than him, or because she had needed it more than him. "There are no set rules of being a bodyguard, other than keeping you safe. I feel like I'm doing my job as long as we stay out here," he said with a laugh.

They were sitting on Elena's balcony, that way there was no danger of her father smelling the weed inside the house. Technically, it wasn't against any specific bodyguard rules, like Damon said, but weed was still illegal, and therefore, probably frowned upon by the vice presidential candidate.

"Oh, right. You're job. God, how sick is that? That your job is to hang out with some boring teenager all the time? Don't you ever get sick of it?"

Damon had to stop and think about that for a moment. It wasn't that it was difficult to answer. It was just...hard to explain. Which, yeah, sound a lot like the same thing, but they aren't. Damon pushed out a soft breath, before casting a look over at Elena. "Yeah, I do. I mean...I haven't always been a bodyguard. Something in my life pushed me that way. So, a few years ago, I wouldn't have told you this was my dream day, but I do handle it. I mean, you aren't that bad, and you could be a lot worse. That's how I choose to look at it."

Elena was quiet for a few moments, before pushing out a soft breath as she pushed her hair behind her ear. The effects of the weed they'd smoked seemed to die down - even if it was just for a second. She was taking in each and every word that Damon said, which was hard, because her drug-hazed mind wasn't doing the best job of keeping up. "What happened?"

"Hmm?"

"What happened in your life to push you towards being a bodyguard?" Elena said, her eyes glancing over towards him.

He was quiet, before shaking his head. "I can't talk about it."

"Damon, come-"

"I said no, Elena. Leave it alone."

With that, Damon stood up and walked inside the house, leaving Elena alone on the balcony.

* * *

"Oh, just shut up and kiss me already!"

Things between Katherine and Caroline were starting to heat up a bit. Not in some weird, sexual way. They just clashed personalities sometimes (most of the times) and right now, they were arguing a bit. Things after Caroline's proposal had kind of fallen like a domino set, and somehow, they had ended up here, both sitting on the window-seat, and facing one another.

"That is so not fair," Caroline said, giving Katherine a look. "You were the one who was complaining about not crossing it off yet. You should have to make the first move."

"Yes, but it was your idea!"

"Oh, please, we both know that you were thinking it too."

"No, I wasn't!"

This should have been easy. They should have been able to pucker up their lips, kiss once, and call it a day. But, something in both of them was demanding that they make it harder than that, for whatever reason. They both wanted the other to make the first move - as if it was some big, defining moment, and not just some kiss to cross something off a bucket list.

Katherine Pierce and Caroline Forbes were nothing, if not dramatic.

"How about we compromise?" Caroline finally said, and it looked as though she was going to launch into a big explanation. And, sure enough, she began. "So, we both don't want to make the first move, right? So, how about, we just sit about this far apart, and we start to inch closer and closer to each other until-"

Katherine had enough. Caroline was putting too much thought into this, and the brunette honestly just wanted this done. So, she reached her hand up, hooked it around the back of Caroline's neck, and pulled her into a kiss.

It was nothing, okay? It was just a little kiss, between two friends, to cross something off a bucket list.

It was nothing.

Maybe if they keep telling themselves that, it will start becoming true.

* * *

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this story! Sorry if the representation of Elena/Damon being high is not good xD I have never done anything like that before, so I had nothing to write off of, except TV show/book portrayal lol!**

 **I have a question for you guys this part, though! As you can see, I kind of hinted at a possible relationship between Katherine/Caroline in this chapter. I was wondering what you guys thought of that? I've been toying with it for the whole story, and I wrote this scene and it felt good. But, I want to put into the story, what you guys want to see!**

 **And, now, for the REVIEWS! (There were a lot so I only responded to the ones who needed a bit more than a "Thank you!" but, I do love each and every review and you are all beautiful!)**

Undaunted One: (Chapter 9) My sweetest, dearest Undaunted One, your reviews never fail at making me smileeee :) I hope you liked this chapter, and thank you for your advice during my break :) lots of love!

Sara: (Chapter 9) As expressed in earlier chapters, there are going to be a few plotholes in this story, just because of how I've changed my mind during writing them and such. I asked a while back if people would like me to start over to fix them, or to just keep going. And majority ruled that I keep going :) Sorry for confusing you, and I hope you continue to read!

Guest: (Chapter 2) _"_ _At least Damon sounds fun, she could have gotten a lot worse or someone rather stiff and old."_ That's what I'm saying xD Elena needs to get over herself xD (and yes I do say this as I continue to write the main character as someone who is upset Damon is her body guard lol. the irony is not lost on me!)

Guest: (Chapter 3) _"_ _Tell me that Dathrine will not be hooking up in this story."_ I don't reveal the secrets of my stories ;) (But in this case, no, Datherine will not be hooking up in this story :))

Guest: (Chapter 4) _"_ _How come Damon didn't know Klaus if he and Rebekah dated for 2 years?"_ All will be revealed in good time my friend :)

Guest: (Chapter 7) _"_ _Damon to the rescue. Elena's idea to drive through a brick building at full speed was kind of naive but cute. You gotta give her points for bravery and strength though"_ I feel like the best way to define Elena Gilbert is naive, but cute xD

vamphony: (Chapter 3) I totally get where you're coming from! However, a small "spoiler" like, Damon won't end up with X Person, isn't a spoiler in my opinion :) This story is Delena endgame, and I make no secrets about that! But, your review was definitely appreciated, and thank you for your kind words :)

 **Alright guys, until next time!**

 **PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! I LOVE HEARING YOUR GUYS' THOUGHTS :)**

 **-Katia**


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